NEA. California gets it wrong. Big money over students and teachers.

– National Education Association

A California judge’s ruling Tuesday against due process for teachers is as flawed as the meritless lawsuit filed by a billionaire boys’ club behind it—and the California Teachers Association (CTA) promised to appeal it on behalf of teachers and students.

“Let’s be clear: This lawsuit was never about helping students, but is yet another attempt by millionaires and corporate special interests to undermine the teaching profession and push their own ideological agenda on public schools and students while working to privatize public education,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel.

The lawsuit, Vergara v. State of California, was filed on behalf of Beatriz Vergara and eight other California students, but the man behind it is Silicon Valley billionaire David Welch. Welch and his ultra-rich cronies are funding the lawsuit for corporate special interests, in yet another attempt to railroad their school privatization agenda through California public schools.

The lawsuit and the judge’s support of it will do nothing to actually help students, and in fact will do a lot to harm them. Stripping teachers of their rights to due process won’t help learning. But it will make it more difficult to attract and retain the best and brightest to the teaching profession—which already loses up to 50 percent of new teachers within the first five years. The plaintiffs also ignore all the research that shows clearly how experience is a key factor in effective teaching, pointed out Van Roekel.

If the plaintiffs really wanted to make a difference for students, instead of attacking the rights of teachers, they’d consider the real problems in California public schools. Since 2008, California funding to public schools has been cut nearly 14 percent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, leaving teachers without adequate resources and too-large class sizes.

“This lawsuit has nothing to do with what’s best for kids, but was manufactured by a Silicon Valley millionaire and a corporate PR firm to undermine the teaching profession and push their agenda on our schools,” said CTA President Dean E. Vogel.

Read the entire post here.