In a sweeping challenge of teacher employment rules, eight students have filed suit claiming that California law violates their right to a quality education by protecting bad teachers from being laid off or fired.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks to overturn five laws governing teacher tenure, dismissal procedures and seniority-based layoffs - pillars of the teaching profession that have fallen under increasingly sharp criticism but are fiercely protected by unions.
"A handful of outdated laws passed by the California Legislature are preventing school administrators from maintaining or improving the quality of our public educational system by denying them the flexibility to ma