Bill Ending Tenure in State Colleges Passes House Subcommittee

A proposal that would pull the plug on multiyear contracts for new state college and community college faculty members and administrators advanced through the House K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee on a party-lines vote on Tuesday.

Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami, the chairman of the subcommittee, relinquished the gavel to present the bill to the committee. He insisted that only employees at the 28 schools in the State College System -- and not universities -- would be impacted by the proposal.

The measure would impact all new hires -- save college presidents --after July 1, moving them to one-year contracts as opposed to multiyear contracts or tenure.

Fresens legislation would also move the State College System into line with the teacher performance pay measure passed and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott earlier in the month. The measure would set up assessments for instructors and administrators -- and abolish seniority as a factor when employment cuts are made.

I look at that system as one that has to be a lot more responsive to real world scenarios in real world time, insisted Fresen, who pointed toward the increased enrollment in those schools due to the economy.

Fresen maintained that he spoke to college administrators and that this measure would help them respond to the changing education marketplace.

Were trying to figure out how we can make their jobs easier with less and truly respond to the environment that theyre in, said Fresen, who said that college presidents and administrators were handcuffed by the current system.

Democrats on the subcommittee expressed their opposition to Fresens proposal.

Post-secondary institutions rely on academic freedom and tenure as a means for recruiting, said Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, who had led Democratic opposition to the earlier teacher performance pay reforms.

Bullard insisted that abolishing tenure would lead to less professors with terminal degrees -- which could prove very harmful to schools facing accreditation reviews from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). He also insisted that the state would face competition from private, traditional institutions and for-profit colleges as well as universities and colleges in other states for talented young faculty. In order for us to recruit the best potential candidates to be professors we cant pass a bill like this.