On the Vergara ruling and the war on teachers
Here’s the question for reasonable people who believe seniority and due process are the problem: What should they be replaced with?
By Cosmo Garvin
cosmog@newsreview.com
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This offers at least some insight into what it might feel like to be a teacher in Sacramento, and to open the paper every morning wondering how teachers will be denigrated and scapegoated that day.
There was a lot of that in Sacramento last week, following the Vergara v. Californiadecision. Vergara was funded by a Silicon Valley millionaire named David Welch, one of many rich guys pushing to diminish the influence of teacher unions in education. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu ruled that California’s rules on tenure and teacher dismissal are unconstitutional, because they effectively stick poor kids with bad teachers.
Treu’s ruling delighted foes of teacher unions everywhere. Critics say his decision is thin, and likely to be overturned on appeal. Nothing changes until then, either way.
The real problem in education, of course, isn’t teacher tenure. It’s poverty, income inequality and segregation.
Still, reasonable people can disagree on how much teacher protection is enough. Bites has seen a lot of commentary around Vergara on how “crazy” California’s tenure system is, allowing teachers full due-process rights after just two years. Due process means a teacher can’t be fired without cause, and is entitled to defend their job at a hearing.
California is one of a handful of states with a two-year-probationary period. A handful of states have four- or five-year waiting periods. The large majority of states have a three-year probationary period. So, yeah, bananas.
California’s “last in, first out” rules means that when layoffs happen, the pink slips go first to the teachers with the least classroom experience. The plaintiffs in Vergara argue LIFO leads to firing lots of young, good teachers and keeping lots of bad, old teachers who happen to have more seniority.
That’s a red herring. Layoffs are an extremely blunt instrument—not the right tool to address Sacramento News & Review - On the Vergara ruling and the war on teachers - Bites - Opinions - June 19, 2014:
