David Boies helped California gay couples win the right to marry. Now he’s attacking teacher tenure
David Boies is an accomplished civil rights attorney who is probably best known for his Supreme Court cases, in which he has represented Al Gore and Californian gay couples seeking to marry. Now he is working on behalf of kids in urban schools, but his approach is a controversial one. He argues that teacher tenure denies students their right to an equal education, guaranteed in Brown v. Board of Education and many state constitutions.
Boies is chairman of the Partnership for Educational Justice, the group started by former news anchor Campbell Brown that has organized a lawsuit to eliminate tenure in New York. The group is planning more cases in other states. A similar effort succeeded in California earlier this year, and Gov. Jerry Brown is appealing that case.
Last week, Wonkblog talked about teacher tenure with Jesse Rothstein, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley who supports teacher tenure. Rothstein's research has shown that without teacher tenure, recruiting and retaining talented teachers would be even more difficult than it already is. On Monday, Wonkblog met with Boies to talk about teacher tenure -- specifically what it means for education to be a civil right and whether state and federal governments should provide equal funding to districts in wealthy and poor cities.
The debate over tenure, Boies said, might be a distraction from other, larger issues in the public schools where progress might be possible. "Everybody needs to step back and understand that this is part of a broader problem," Boies said. "I think both sides can probably find areas of agreement."
An edited transcript of the interview is below.
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I wanted to start with Brown v. Board of Education. It's been 60 years. What do you see as the legacy of Brown vs. Board?
We are continuing to segregate our schools. While people now will say that segregation is based on economics, the history of this country has deprived many African American families of the same economic opportunities that other people have enjoyed. We segregate our schools in a way that is not only undesirable, but fundamentally at odds with the basic principles of our country.
Our basic principles in this country are that everybody deserves an opening shot. If you don't have an equal education, if you don't have equal home environment, you can't have that. You have many inner-city schools that are serving students whose lives are already severely challenged because of the economic and social circumstances of their families. Not only are they not getting the extra help that they need and deserve, they're not getting help that is remotely comparable to the educational opportunities that are given to children in upper income suburbs.
Teacher tenure is an important issue, but it's only one part of a much, much larger problem. Because teacher tenure is such a flash point, people are focusing on that issue, separate from the broader issue of how we provide educational equality to our students. Everybody needs to step back and understand that this is part of a broader problem. It would be desirable if both sides could get together on the issues that they agree on. I think both sides can probably find areas of agreement.
So what are some of those areas of agreement?
I think one of the areas of agreement is the need to increase educational budgets. I think another area is the need to move towards fiscal equality. Really just for historical reasons, we've evolved a funding mechanism for schools that was neighborhood based. As our neighborhoods have become increasingly unbalanced in terms of economic and social characteristics, that method of funding is increasingly untenable.
What the federal government can do is to help in terms of equalizing funding. There is a national obligation and a national imperative to improve our education system.
States can do that as well. There are state constitutions that compel that. The state constitutions in various places including California, including Florida, talk about the right to an education. They don't talk about the right to an education provided by Miami-Dade or Los Angeles. It is an obligation of the state of Florida, the state of California.
The issue of equal funding for schools across a state -- that might be another case.
Absolutely.
We're talking about not just tenure, we're talking about financing of the education system -- what else? Are there are other areas where you think people who are looking to improve the education system in this country could use the courts and the precedent of Brown vs. Board?
If you had fiscal equality, and you had promotion and retention on the merits, and you had some family choice, those three things would go a very long ways toward radically improving our education system. I believe we will have initiatives in other states before the New York case is over with. The decision has not been made.
I talked to Jesse Rothstein of Berkeley last week. He made two arguments about tenure that I'm hoping you can respond to. He David Boies helped California gay couples win the right to marry. Now he’s attacking teacher tenure - The Washington Post:
