Bloomberg and Klein with another important step in the right direction. Tenure should be abolished completely, of course, and replaced with a system that protects teachers from capricious firings and other abuse (and no more), but until that happens, the next-best solution is to make tenure tough to earn:

The city is making it harder for public-school teachers to get tenure, requiring their students to show progress in consecutive years before instructors gain the coveted job protection.

Traditionally, in New York City as in other places, tenure is granted to teachers three years and a day after they begin working. Critics have complained that the protections that tenure accords ineffective teachers makes them hard to remove. Before a teacher reaches tenure, principals can more easily fire them—but they rarely do.

Five years ago, fewer than 1% of New York City teachers were denied tenure. But last year, 11% of teachers were denied tenure or continued on probation, amid a push by schools Chancellor Joel Klein for greater teacher accountability.

Monday's announcement, which was made by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a New York education conference, goes a step further—by creating new rules for when principals can grant teachers tenure, rather than leaving it up to their subjective judgment or inaction.

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