So former CNN anchor Campbell Brown has filed a lawsuit in New York against teacher tenure. If we didn’t have tenure, we’d live with the specter of being fired almost every day in the name of doing what is right and just for the students we teach. Some of us are still threatened for many different reasons, and the fact that we have tenure is what keeps us from totally going off the deep end. Tenure is the one thing we have on our side. It makes sure that we have due process and at the very least can fight for ourselves.

Amy Bernstein, PS 272, Brooklyn
(via Facebook)

♦ ♦ ♦

I think this whole lawsuit proves why we need tenure. Everyone thinks they can do a better job than us. Perfect irony.

Francine Witte, Norman Thomas HS, Manhattan
(via Facebook)

♦ ♦ ♦

How are we supposed to encourage the next generation of educators when we create an environment where they’ll be fearing for their jobs and looking over their shoulders? Socrates didn’t have tenure. Look how that worked out for him.

Jason Miller, PS 138 @ J117, Manhattan
(via Facebook)

♦ ♦ ♦

It’s all semantics. The only thing that needs to be changed about teacher job protections is the label “tenure.” The protections we have are no different than those of cops, firemen, sanitation workers, etc. The biggest problem is that the anti-teacher, anti-union media have hijacked the word “tenure” and convinced the majority of the general public that it means “guaranteed job for life.” Nobody is filing lawsuits to take job protections away from sanitation workers because their job protections aren’t called tenure. Although they are obviously wrong, the general public believes that tenure is designed to prevent criminals from being fired. Call it something else, and maybe they will realize what it is.

Gary Malone, JHS 189, Queens
(via Facebook)

♦ ♦ ♦

The truth is that people like Campbell Brown are not nearly as interested in students’ achievement as they are interested in eliminating teachers as a force to reckon with in trying to get their hands on the trillion-dollar education budget in the United States.

Antoine Bogard, retired
(via Facebook)