California's High-Stakes Teacher Tenure Case Goes to Judge After Closing Arguments

This is quite a story to follow and the outcome is pretty important here. Teachers hold tenure as something like a right and it's incredible to see that it's come to this point from the actions of students.

Two years ago, the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm signed on to represent eight California public students targeting teacher tenure, in Vergara v. California. The Superior Court case went to trial this year, with the students alleging that the state's education system violates the equal protection provision of the California Constitution.

At issue are state education laws that students say unfairly give teachers permanent employment, prevent removal of grossly ineffective teachers from classrooms, and during economic downturns require layoffs of teachers based on seniority rather than their ability to teach.

Go Students! I imagine this is one state where teachers now wish a few students hadn't paid so much attention in Social Studies or Civics, or whatever it's called these days. They had no problems in learning about how the system works as well as how it can BE worked for good and bad causes alike.

The firm's attorney Marcellus McRae was even more emphatic. He called the education laws an "abomination," "crazy," and "irrational" and said the state is depriving poor and minority students of a quality education.

Citing expert testimony, McRae noted that it could cost from $250,000 to $400,000 to dismiss a single teacher. Because the process is so slow and expensive, fewer than 0.002 percent of teachers receive their walking papers, the attorney said.

Source: Courthouse News

I definitely believe the effort here has been good, and getting this far is a great accomplishment. I hope it does come out against the tenure system. I have very negative memories from my school years in Southern California and bad teachers held by seniority certainly play a big role in that.

No one should keep their job based on criteria which don't include outcome and merit as a large part of it, in my humble opinion.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Not a big fan of unions. Not entirely opposed to them either, but there's a time and a place.

The teacher's union and government employee unions ... how'd that happen?!?

I'm in agreement with your opinion: Go students!!

reply to post by Snarl


I think I have very hard core problems with Unions in Government. They are literally dictating terms of pay for workers we..the people...directly hire on threat of strike if 'we the people' don't pony up whatever is demanded, upon demand, every time contracts come up. Let's not even go where we need to fire someone or ..(gasp) downsize? Oh..not in THAT sector, eh? Not without a clash of the Titans. (See Detroit for reference)

Schools? I see the value of the teacher's unions. I honestly do. What I think is horribly wrong is how the teachers Unions have managed to come to run the schools, the system they are a part of and all aspects of it. From the top to the bottom. Period. Nothing happens in a significant way without the approval and outright blessing of the Teacher's Unions. Tenure? Heck...that's a powerful motivator to have FIERCELY loyal teachers, willing to do almost anything to protect the Union as an entity.

great scam they've had running for self-perpetuation. Almost fool proof....until the fools running it forgot to consider, Students are people too. Even they can get sick of the crap far enough to act.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


There is no place in a free society for public sector unions, period.

The purpose of the U.S. educational system is to institutionalize and indoctrinate American children. From one federally mandated program (e.g. no child left behind, fuzzy math, common core, etc.) to the next, our government issues directives that ensure schools will produce closed minds capable of thinking inside a box, and no further. In many ways producing minds similar to those of individuals who've been indoctrinated by rigid religious dogma.

"Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless." - Leo Tolstoy