Silicon Valley billionaire David Welch invented his parent astro-turf group to bring suit against California teachers.
Teachers lost a big court case in California today when a Los Angeles Superior Court ruled against tenure protection. The court case was funded by Silicon Valley billionaire David Welch.
The ruling, which declared the laws governing how teachers are hired and fired in California to be unconstitutional, is likely to set off a slew of legal fights here and in other states, where many education reform advocates are eager to change similar laws. The ruling brings a close to the first chapter of the case, Vergara v. California, but both sides have made it clear that they plan to appeal any decision that goes against them to the State Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs argued that California’s current laws made it impossible to get rid of low-performing and incompetent teachers, who were disproportionately assigned to schools filled with poor students. The result, they insisted, amounted to a violation of students’ constitutional rights to an education.
But lawyers for the states and teachers’ unions said that overturning such laws would erode necessary protections that stop school administrators from making unfair personnel decisions. They also argued that the vast majority of teachers in the state’s schools are competent and providing students with all the necessary tools to learn. More important factors than teachers, they argued, are social and economic inequalities as well as the funding levels of public schools.
Fred Klonsky 
Expain why there is tenure.
Tenure rules provide a roadmap for administrators that protects good teachers from non-arbitrary terminations and for dismissing poor teachers who are unable to improve at their job. “Non-arbitrary” is a contractual term meaning acting without bias. It protects employees from being terminated on the basis of gender, race, age or other factors reflecting bias.
How often are bad teachers fired for arbitrary or non-arbitrary reasons?
I don’t know. How often are good teachers fired for stupid reasons?
Gender,race and age are they not covered by Federal laws? If so, what does tenure cover in the teaching realm?
Yes. In part. But, again, tenure provides a clear, rule governed roadmap for termination of those teachers who demonstrate failure to meet proficiency standards. And remember, in a state like Illinois, teachers are first on a four year probationary status, when they can be terminated without cause.
California teachers have been “SB7ed”, not by a law but by a court that threw out the law protecting tenure. What is the next step, what can we do to fight this miscarriage of justice?
Unfortunately, SB7 in IL provides that by 2016, all Illinois teachers, whether tenured or not, will be placed on the district RIF (Reduction in Force) list if they receive a Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory rating on their evaluation. This is how the Boards of Education will get rid of older teachers who are higher on the salary schedule, or teachers that they perceive to be rabble rousers, outspoken, or in some other way “problematic.”
This is already going on.
After 18 years of Excellent ratings in all areas on my evaluations, I received Proficient this year in all categories from a first year principal who lasted one year in the job. I think it’s obvious where this was supposed to go. I am both outspoken and higher on the salary scale.