Misguided Assault on Teacher Tenure
Economist Thomas Sowell declares war on teachers unions in his highly publicized new
book, Charter Schools and Their Enemies. Sowell charges—as do many conservative opponents of unions—that teachers unions
have made it excessively difficult to remove ineffective teachers.
It may surprise critics to learn that a recent National Bureau of Economic Research study found that unionized districts actually fire more teachers than non-union districts. The study’s author, University of Utah economics professor Eunice Han, Ph.D., believes that because unionized districts have higher pay and better benefits, unions “give school districts a strong incentive to dismiss ineffective teachers before they get tenure.”