N.J. teachers union proposes tenure reforms

Just two days before the Senate Education Committee holds a hearing to examine teacher tenure, New Jersey’s largest teachers union offered its own reform plan.The New Jersey Education Association said the main complaint about teacher tenure is that dismissal proceedings take too long and cost too much. NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said the union wants to have arbitrators decide tenure cases instead of having them heard by administrative law judges. She said that would speed up the nine to 12 months the process now takes.”By taking the courts out of the equation, we believe the average case can be decided in 60 to 90 days once the legal process has begun and at a fraction of the cost,” said Tuesday.Other education advocacy groups have proposed extending the three-year probationary period before a teacher is granted tenure or replacing it with renewable contracts.