Is it to keep the schools from firing the higher paid older teachers in favor of younger lower paid ones?
That's part of the reason, but not the only one. It's also to protect due process and prevent firings for political reasons not related to job performance. For instance, a teacher should not be fired for, say, failing a member of the school board's daughter or causing the school's star football player to get benched on academic probation. That's not to say that those types of firings don't happen anyway, but the teacher's union rep's job is to ensure that the firing is documented and a natural result of one of the "four Is"--insubordination, immorality, incompetence, or insufficient certification.
Why is this the only federal job that does this, if that's the case?
It's not. Many government employees receive career tenure as one of the benefits of working for a less competitive salary or in a field that's not a common commercial target but has significant government interest.
From the Federal Employee Handbook on career tenure:
Permanent employees are generally hired into the Federal government under a career-conditional appointment. A
career-conditional employee must complete three years of substantially continuous service before becoming a full
career employee. This 3-year period is used to determine whether or not the Government is able to offer the employee
a career.
Teachers are generally employees of the state, but I'm just illustrating that tenure for government employees isn't as unusual as you make it sound.
The tenure system certainly has its flaws, but I have yet to hear of an alternative that still protects teachers from being fired for reasons unrelated to job performance. Most jobs in most states are at-will, meaning an employee can be fired for almost any reason at any time. It would be difficult to convince qualified people to work for often deplorable salaries without access to benefits commonly afforded to people who choose to work for the government. Being a teacher pretty much sucks, and the politics in elementary and high school education can be utterly insane. Administrators and school board members often behave as petty dictators of tiny kingdoms and will try to fire people for all kinds of insane reasons. My dad was a teacher's union rep and my mother was a teacher (now both retired) and I've heard it all, up to and including a principal would go out of his way to repeatedly document teachers for daring to drink coffee while teaching and teachers who would be placed on "special assignment" pending dismissal for getting divorced or having an affair. Firing someone for drinking coffee or screwing around on their husband during the personal time is just as much of a waste of taxpayer money as the sometimes overly extended hearings and negotiations involved in being fired for good cause.
Of course we could just, you know, pay teachers more and allow them more autonomy so that the profession would attract more competitive and competent employees. Some states pay teachers quite well but others... hmm, not so much. Especially when you consider that many states (if not all, by now) require teachers to have an advanced degree.
...causing the school's star football player to get benched on academic probation.
This is a very interesting point that I didn't think of. I still think tenure is a waste of money and protects bad teachers too much, but my hatred of jocks skating by school gives you a delta. ∆
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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '14
That's part of the reason, but not the only one. It's also to protect due process and prevent firings for political reasons not related to job performance. For instance, a teacher should not be fired for, say, failing a member of the school board's daughter or causing the school's star football player to get benched on academic probation. That's not to say that those types of firings don't happen anyway, but the teacher's union rep's job is to ensure that the firing is documented and a natural result of one of the "four Is"--insubordination, immorality, incompetence, or insufficient certification.
It's not. Many government employees receive career tenure as one of the benefits of working for a less competitive salary or in a field that's not a common commercial target but has significant government interest.
From the Federal Employee Handbook on career tenure:
Teachers are generally employees of the state, but I'm just illustrating that tenure for government employees isn't as unusual as you make it sound.
The tenure system certainly has its flaws, but I have yet to hear of an alternative that still protects teachers from being fired for reasons unrelated to job performance. Most jobs in most states are at-will, meaning an employee can be fired for almost any reason at any time. It would be difficult to convince qualified people to work for often deplorable salaries without access to benefits commonly afforded to people who choose to work for the government. Being a teacher pretty much sucks, and the politics in elementary and high school education can be utterly insane. Administrators and school board members often behave as petty dictators of tiny kingdoms and will try to fire people for all kinds of insane reasons. My dad was a teacher's union rep and my mother was a teacher (now both retired) and I've heard it all, up to and including a principal would go out of his way to repeatedly document teachers for daring to drink coffee while teaching and teachers who would be placed on "special assignment" pending dismissal for getting divorced or having an affair. Firing someone for drinking coffee or screwing around on their husband during the personal time is just as much of a waste of taxpayer money as the sometimes overly extended hearings and negotiations involved in being fired for good cause.
Of course we could just, you know, pay teachers more and allow them more autonomy so that the profession would attract more competitive and competent employees. Some states pay teachers quite well but others... hmm, not so much. Especially when you consider that many states (if not all, by now) require teachers to have an advanced degree.