Recently, the budget crises that affect the U.S. federal, state, and local governments have led to a number of proposals that are remarkable in one way or another. It seems apropos to examine New Jersey Governor Cristie's campaign to get rid of tenure for teachers. Although there are many ways of characterizing the value of tenure, I will focus here on the possible effect of its removal on education budgets.

The fiscal goal of removing tenure is to make it easier, during periods of limited funds, for school administrators to lay off more expensive (i.e., more senior/tenured) teachers in favor of keeping less experienced/cheaper ones. Without the protection of tenure, administrators would not have to gather the necessary evidence, which due process requires, to terminate a senior teacher. Thus, it is argued, school districts would have more flexibility to control their personnel budgets. Is this an approach likely to work?

Let us begin to examine this by first looking backward at why the policy of giving public schoolteachers tenure evolved in the first place. The canonical reason given for tenure is usually to protect academic freedom, to allow teachers to provide instruction in what might be viewed as controversial topics. This is surely true, but battles akin to those that resulted from John Scopes's decision to teach evolution in the face a dogmatic school board in Dayton, Tennessee, are, happily, rare. But the reason that most teachers would want tenure is because it provides them with increased job security in general, and, in particular, as protection against capricious personnel decisions.

A more interesting question is why did states agree to grant tenure in the first place? In fact, local school boards had no direct say in the matter, for it was mandated by the state. The state officials who made this decision must have known that it would reduce flexibility in modifying school staff, and that it would make following due process in terminating a tenured teacher more time consuming and expensive. Why is tenure almost uniformly agreed to in all states? I don't know for sure, but let me offer an educated guess. I am sure that most progressive officials appreciate, and value, the importance of academic freedom. But that is not the most pressing practical reason.