Tenure was designed for higher education and is out of place in K-12. Tenure's purpose is to protect and encourage academic freedom. Unpopular research often becomes groundbreaking research. Since K-12 teachers do not conduct research and follow fairly strict curricula, tenure is merely a union tactic to guarantee employment.
> Unpopular research often becomes groundbreaking research.
That sounds legit, but the best example I can think of is stem cell research. Can you help me out? I'm not an academic so I don't really know that world.