USA: Teacher tenure under judicial attack | WPN World People News

The National Education Association (NEA), has criticised the California Superior Court’s finding on the Vergara v. State of California case that Californian teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional.

NEA’s affiliate, the California Teachers Association, promised to appeal the finding on behalf of teachers and students.

According to the NEA, the Vergara v. State of California lawsuit was filed on behalf of Beatriz Vergara and eight other California students. However, it is alleged that the lawsuit was funded by corporate special interests, in an attempt to progress their school privatisation agenda.

On 11 June, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel spoke on CNN with journalist Randi Kaye and Jeanne Allen, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow with the Centre for Education Reform about this teacher tenure suit in California.

“Let’s be clear,” said Van Roekel. “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 privatise public education.” Van Roekel added that the ruling will “make it harder to attract and retain quality teachers and ignores all research that shows experience is a key factor in effective teaching”.

Negative impact

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 per cent of new teachers within the first five years.

He further explained that if the plaintiffs really wanted to make a difference for students, instead of attacking the rights of teachers, they would consider the real problems in California’s public schools. Since 2008, funding to public schools in California has been cut by nearly 14 per cent, according to the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities, leaving teachers without adequate resources and too-large class sizes.

Several recent cases

Van Roekel went on to say that California is not the only state to consider teacher “tenure” this year—but it is the only state to get it wrong. In North Carolina this May, a judge rejected the state’s attempt to repeal due process, after a group of teachers represented by the North Carolina Association of Educators filed suit against a state law passed in late 2013.

Similarly, no teacher in California has a job for life either, he reminded. Any teacher can be fired in his or her first two years for no reason. However, current law does make sure that teachers are not dismissed for unfair or arbitrary reasons, and that budget-based layoffs are implemented objectively, in a process free from favouritism.

On 10 June, NEA promised its continued support for CTA during the appeals process. Van Roekel also said: “NEA will continue to stand up for students and focus on the ingredients that are proven to help students the most—like supporting new teachers, providing ongoing training, paying teachers a decent salary, and developing reliable evaluation systems to measure teacher effectiveness.”

EI: Tenure needed for quality teachers and education

‘EI fully supports its American colleagues in their struggle to ensure decent job tenure and working conditions,’ stated EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen. “Tenure is there to allow teachers to focus on providing students with quality education, and not on where they are going to work and teach next,” he said. “Undermining tenure alienates teachers and ignores the important role of quality teaching in providing quality education for a society’s sustainable future.

Source: Education International