Torlakson asks state to appeal Vergara ruling
August 29, 2014 | By Jane Meredith Adams | No Comments
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Friday asked the California attorney general to appeal the landmark court decision in Vergara vs. California, which in June struck down statutes giving California teachers firing protections and rights to tenure and seniority.
The request comes two days after Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu affirmed his ruling in a final review Wednesday, triggering the 60-day window for filing appeals.
After a two-month trial last spring in Los Angeles, Treu ruled that teacher protection laws disproportionately deny poor and minority students access to a quality public education. The judge agreed with the claims from nine students in five districts that teacher tenure and dismissal laws result in “grossly ineffective teachers” being hired and retained and that these teachers are “disproportionately situated in schools serving predominantly low-income and minority students.”
In a statement, Torlakson said that the ruling unfairly “lays the failings of our education system” at the feet of teachers. Teachers deserve “our admiration and support,” Torlakson said.
After a two-month trial last spring in Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu ruled that teacher protection laws disproportionately deny poor and minority students access to a quality public education.
“We do not fault doctors when emergency rooms are full,” Torlakson said. “We do not criticize the firefighters whose supply of water runs dry. Yet while we crowd our classrooms and fail to properly equip them with adequate resources, those who filed and support this case shamelessly seek to blame teachers who step forward every day to make a difference for our children.”
The court’s ruling “is not supported by the facts or the law,” Torlakson said, stating that he would ask Attorney General Kamala Harris to file an appeal.
The case was filed by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch, who founded the group known Students Matter to pursue the case on behalf of the nine students, including Beatriz Vergara, a high school student in the Los Angeles Unified School District who is the first Torlakson asks state to appeal Vergara ruling | EdSource:
