A nonprofit organization dedicated to sponsoring public education impact litigation has won a California Superior Court case challenging state teacher tenure laws, and it has expressed its intention to file suit in other states as well.
The National School Board Association reports that the organization Students Matter filed suit on behalf of nine California public school students, alleging that five state statutes violate students’ right to equal protection under the state constitution. In Vergara v. California, they argued that these laws impacted poor and minority students’ right to education equality and disproportionately burdened them by allowing grossly ineffective teachers to evade termination. A Superior Court judge agreed.
The court concluded that all of the challenged statutes were unconstitutional.
It found California’s two-year probationary period for teachers was insufficient for making a tenure award decision.
It also struck down the state teacher dismissal statutes, finding that the time and cost of complying with the laws caused school districts to be reluctant to initiate teacher dismissal procedures. It held that the laws create a complex and expensive process to dismiss grossly ineffective teachers that was not effective, efficient, or fair.
Additionally, the court struck down California’s “last in, first out” statute that requires teachers to be laid off in order of seniority rather than performance level. The court found it unconstitutional, refusing to agree that California had a compelling interest “in de facto separation of students from competent teachers, and a like interest in the de facto retention of incompetent ones.”
The court declined to enforce its decision, allowing the challenged laws to stand pending higher court review. The New York Times reports that Students Matter is considering filing similar suits in other states, such as Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, and Oregon.
