The Vergara Court Decision Shows Us That The War On Teachers Is In Full Swing
By: Justin Baragona
On Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in the Vergara vs. California court case. Essentially, the judge stripped teachers of due process and ruled that tenure is unconstitutional. The lawsuit was brought up, ostensibly, by nine students from poor economic areas of California who felt that poorly performing teachers, who were protected by tenure, hurt their educational progress. In reality, it was the brainchild of so-called education reform organizations like Students Matter and Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, with the high-powered legal team for the plaintiffs funded by tech billionaire David Welch.
PoliticusUSA’s Rmuse covered the basics of the decision on Wednesday, pointing out the corporate elements at play and showing that this is really nothing more than a union-busting measure by ‘reformers’ who are dead set on profiting off of standardized testing materials and privatized education. The dream of Rhee and her minions is to push charter schools into inner-cities and other poorer areas of the country. Knowing that these schools will likely not be able to keep up with rigid, across-the-board testing standards, they can have local and state administrators further defund these schools even more and have them lose their accreditation. That is when the corporate hawks come into the areas with the charter schools, fully prepared with Common Core textbooks and learning materials via Silicon Valley, and paid for with vouchers from the state via taxpayer money.
The American Federation of Teachers bemoaned this decision, as they know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement on Tuesday:
“While this decision is not unexpected, the rhetoric and lack of a thorough, reasoned opinion is disturbing. For example, the judge believes that due process is essential, but his objection boils down to his feeling that two years is not long enough for probation. He argues, as we do, that no one should tolerate bad teachers in the classroom. He is right on that. But in focusing on these teachers who make up a fraction of the workforce, he strips the hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing a good job of any right to a voice. In focusing on who should be laid off in times of budget crises, he omits the larger problem at play: full and fair funding of our schools so all kids have access to the classes—like music, art and physical education—andThe Vergara Court Decision Shows Us That The War On Teachers Is In Full Swing: