>>The whole reason for the tenure system is to protect teachers from being fired arbitrarily or because of their politics. It's exceptionally difficult to fire a tenured teacher. You need cause and due process.
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>>Perhaps your friends weren't tenured.
>
>Does it matter if they were tenured or not? I think a bigger issue is why were they terminated... for performance or because of race? If Thomas' account is correct, then this is Affirmative Action at it's "best".

Not the first time I've seen any reform done in such a manner as to provoke the worst reactions, just to prove it was wrong. That's what you get when you push for something that doesn't have an overwhelming approval - it will be done, but it will be done so that it serves as an example for why it shouldn't have been done.

The example I remember the best was one of the education reforms back home, which lasted from late seventies into late eighties or so (I left teaching in 1986, and didn't have a solid reason to remember dates after that :). It was paved with good intentions, but as soon as it hit the classrooms it was reduced to absurdities and paradoxes. No matter how noble and well-intended the original ideas were, in practice it turned out so bad, that I counted "I don't want to be a co-conspirator in this" among important reasons for leaving.