Trial decision strikes down teacher tenure

A judge’s decision in lawsuit decided in June struck down California’s law about teacher tenure, ruling that job protection for teachers violates students’ rights to education under the state constitution. But the decision is on hold and tenure remains in place pending an appeal.

Teachers at California public schools can earn tenure after two years. The main point of the Vergara v. California case is that underrepresented lower class schools tend to get bad teachers, and can’t get rid of them because of the teachers’ tenure. Head attorney David Welch, along with the non-profit organization Students Matter, argues that it is a civil violation of students’ right to a fair and equal education.

Beatriz Vergara, age 15, is one of the plaintiffs of the cases, and has allegedly been a victim to “bad teachers.” In court, Vergara testified, “In my math class in sixth grade, my math teacher would always fall asleep in class. He could never control the class. It was always loud and I could never hear anything.”

She also described a history teacher she had in seventh grade who would always call the students stupid, tell her that she would just end up cleaning houses, or call students “cholos,” a derogatory word that describes someone who is from the streets.

Some students at CVHS do not feel that this is the best way to get rid of teachers. “Okay, so you’re getting rid of bad teachers, but where’s the protection for all the good teachers?” said junior Ben Lee.

Many teachers are against this decision, believing it violates their rights as well. Mark Mladinich, a history teacher at CVHS, says that this lawsuit has a large and negative effect on good teachers.

“ Mistakes that a few teachers made should not affect the 300,000 other teachers in the state of California,” he said. “There’s less than one percent of teachers that are considered to be ‘grossly inadequate.’ Having this in effect is like punishing a whole class of students just because one student fell asleep in class.”

California Teachers Association (CTA) filed a repeal of the decision when it was announced, on the basis that the judge’s ruling has no facts to back it up. One of CTA’s main points was that the removal of tenure not only gets rid of bad teachers, but scares away qualified teachers as well. The organization believes that getting rid of tenure won’t solve any of the real problems in the California school system that need to be solved.

California Governor Jerry Brown is also appealing the decision, and California State Attorney General Kamala Harris filed it the day after the court decision.

The California Federation of Teachers, another major teachers association against the ruling, suggests that instead of getting rid of the tenure, more funding should be provided to make smaller classes or to invest in more training for teachers.