Teacher Tenure is important for similar reasons as lifetime appointments for judges, especially on the academic research side. It certainly has some trade offs,

Teacher Tenure is important for similar reasons as lifetime appointments for judges, especially on the academic research side. It certainly has some trade offs, but it protects our freedoms of expression, speech, and thought in a very fundamental way. Teachers and researchers need to be free from some influences to be able to teach and research unpopular subjects and views. Consider communist teachings during the "red scare" as a relatively recent example. "Faculty Tenure in Academe: The Evolution, Benefits and Implications of an Important Tradition" http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/lh62/CameronJoSA_.pdf http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/lh62/Cameron...