If You Try to Ruin Schools for Profit, You Will Eventually Get Caught
Education Reform, Teachers' Unions - California Appeals Court Upholds Teacher Tenure:
Sweet justice in California.
There is no more inexcusable American couple than Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee. He's the former NBA All-Star and all-star urban corruption specialist with a luxurious taste for public money. She's the queen of the education "reform" grifters with a taste for luxurious corporate money. Between them, they are probably the nation's most gifted surgeons at cutting corners to enrich themselves. And, Thursday, a California appeals court gave Rhee a serious smackdown on one of her signature issues—that is, blowing up the concept of teacher tenure in public schools.
The appeals panel did not challenge evidence that many students are ill served in California public schools. But, the judges said, the laws being questioned were not necessarily responsible. "The evidence at trial firmly demonstrated that staffing decisions, including teacher assignments, are made by administrators, and that the process is guided by teacher preference, district policies, and collective bargaining agreements," Boren wrote. Parties on both sides viewed the Vergara decision as a bellwether for the nation. Similar litigation was filed soon after in New York; and on Thursday, just before the release of the appellate decision in California, another lawsuit was filed in Minnesota.
For all this president's accomplishments, his sweet-tooth for the education "reform" griftapalooza, from Arne Duncan, his Secretary of Education, to his prolonged slow dance with Johnson and Rhee, is a conspicuous exception. (As the linked article makes clear, Duncan was a big cheerleader for the anti-union decision that the appeals court overturned.) And the attack on teacher's unions was the thin edge of the propaganda wedge against unionized public employees, from Scott Walker's Wisconsin to the Supreme Court's decision in the Friedrichs case. That wedge has been used to create openings for everyone from Michelle Rhee to Tea Party whackaloons to come marching into the nation's classrooms. Nobody deserves to be slapped down more than those people.
