Letters to the Editor

Tenure and term limits

Oct 15, 2009 1:23 PM

To the Editor:

As the airways are flooded with advertisements for Michael Bloomberg’s efforts to win re-election, one cannot help but wonder about the term limit law that he undermined to permit his questionable power grab.

Term limits were designed to prevent excessive politicization of government agencies. Such a concentration of power leads to eventual inertia and complacency at best, misinformation and pretension at worst. (Mr. Bloomberg’s advertisements pronouncing the increase in graduation rates during his tenure are an example of his quantitative attitude toward education as opposed to a qualitative one.)

The term limits mind-set should be incorporated into all academic institutions. While the issue of teacher tenure has dominated the dialogue, little has been said about administrators (and the administrative class) who assume positions of academic authority year after year. The lack of term limits for such positions creates an environment of political patronage along with academic inertia of the same old thinking.

The solution to this problem is to end the administrative class and the structure that supports it. Let administrative positions be held by teachers on a rotating basis. This would inevitably increase the all-important harmony and collegiality among teachers; it would rid the system of political patronage that stifles innovation; it would bring fresh ideas into the academic dialogue; it would bring real change to academic bureaucracies.

Larry Hoffner, LaGuardia HS