Vergara v. California: Teacher Tenure on Trial!

Dear Commons Community,

California’s rules on teacher tenure, dismissal, and seniority are on trial in a lawsuit filed by the advocacy group, Students Matter, on behalf of nine students.  The basic issue is: Do these rules keep bad teachers in classrooms and doom some students to an inadequate education?

The plaintiffs in Vergara v. California argued that the state’s employment rules leave so many ineffective teachers on the job that some students – many of them low-income and minority – fail to receive the education guaranteed by the state constitution. The two-month trial ended last Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. A ruling is expected in about two months.  The key issues in the case as reported by Forbes are as follows.

The case, named Vergara v. California, seeks to strike three labor laws in the state. They are:

  • Tenure – California’s Permanent Employment Statute (or “Tenure Law”) mandates that administrators either grant or deny permanent employment status to teachers after only 18 months. However, the plaintiffs claim that the amount of evaluation time is not sufficient to determine a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, as new teachers have yet complete their beginners’ program. L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent John Deasy seconded that assessment when he testified, “There is no way that this is a sufficient amount of time to make such an important decision.”
  • Dismissal Statutes – Once teachers receive tenure, it is nearly impossible to remove them from the classroom for poor performance. State records indicate there are more than 300,000 teachers in California’s public schools. Yet, according to the nonprofit Students Matter, the sponsor of Veagara v. California, over the last 10 years, only 91 tenured teachers have been removed from classrooms. And of those dismissals, just 19 were due to poor performance in the classroom. The process to remove a bad teacher can take up to 10 years and cost millions of dollars in taxpayer funding, noted Deasy.
  • Seniority – California law dictates that school districts must use the “Last In, First Out” Layoff Statute (or LIFO) if it ever has to lay off teachers. When it comes to making their choices, school boards are not allowed to consider a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom. The Plaintiffs claim school districts are forced to retain ineffective teachers if they have been teaching longer, which diminishes the quality of education that students receive.

The verdict in this case will be watched closely in many other states. With appeals, it is very possible that the final verdict in this case is several years away.

Tony

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