T-Paw proposes Minnesota teachers reapply for tenure every five years

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is proposing that public school teachers in his state reapply for tenure every five years. As in most states, teachers can work there until retirement with no fear of getting fired--save for committing egregious misdeeds.

Under the Republican's plan, school districts will decide on keeping K-12 teachers based upon factors such as evaluations and student test scores.

Predictably, Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, opposes the idea. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, the Gopher State version of the Dems, controls the state legislature, so the chances of Pawlenty's proposal becoming law are slim--at least in the short term.

But prior to 1995, welfare reform looked like a long shot too. As the great Illinois Republican Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen most famously remarked, "There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come."

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Teachers union blocking education progress in Detroit

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