""It got me to thinking about political lines, pendulums, they're always moving ... I kind of think that way about tenure," Republican Justin Lafferty told his subcommittee Wednesday in a brief but wide-ranging explanation for dropping the bill. According to a video of the meeting posted on the state General Assembly's website, Lafferty said tenure goes back to the 1600s or 1700s, "a time when there weren't that many highly educated folks," so "it was very important to keep the best and the brightest.""
""With tenure now, the pendulum has swung so far that we can have state employees that we pay with our tax dollars-'mock' might not be the right word, but can certainly be very insensitive towards the death of another human being," Lafferty said. "And as a Tennessean, I'm not comfortable with the fact that that person cannot be removed from a job.""
Justin Lafferty withdrew a bill to end tenure at public universities after acknowledging historical and protective aspects of tenure. Lafferty noted tenure dates to the 1600s or 1700s, established to retain scarce highly educated individuals. He referenced the Vietnam War era as an example when protections preserved academic talent during controversial times. Lafferty also cited a tenured professor's termination, later reinstatement and a $500,000 payout, framing concerns about faculty speech. Lafferty expressed discomfort that taxpayer-funded employees could act insensitively around a death yet be irremovable. He withdrew the bill but suggested possible future actions to address tenure.
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