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The
Daily Signal
A
Defeat for Terrible Teachers in California
Katrina
Trinko
June
10, 2014
It
won’t be as simple from now on for ineffective California teachers
to coast off to a lifetime career on easy street.
In a
Los Angeles Superior Court ruling today, Judge Rolf M. Treu “found
five California laws governing teacher tenure, layoffs and dismissals
unconstitutional,” reports Politico.
“Treu
found,” reporter Stephanie Simon wrote, “that the statutes permit
too many grossly incompetent teachers to remain in classrooms across
the state —and found that those teachers shortchange their students
by putting them months or years behind their peers in math and
reading.”
There’s
no doubt that not all teachers are created equal. Some are excellent,
of course. But not all of them are, and in California, it’s almost
impossible to fire a tenured teacher.
The
case, which was brought by nine public school students, challenged
five California statutes related to teacher tenure, including one
that requires teachers to receive tenure—or be dismissed—after a
mere 16 months on the job. In contrast, 41 other states give school
authorities a full three years to make that tenure decision.
Students
Matter, a group affiliated with the nine students in the case,
asserts that poor teachers were hurting California students.
“According to the testimony of Dr. Raj Chetty, a student assigned
to a grossly ineffective teacher loses $50,000 in potential lifetime
earnings compared to a student assigned to a teacher of average
effectiveness,” states the group’s fact sheet.
Minority
students have been particularly hard hit. “According to the
testimony of Dr. Thomas Kane, in Los Angeles Unified [school
district], African American students are 43 percent more likely than
white students to be taught by a teacher in the bottom 5 percent of
effectiveness,” Students Matters wrote. It’s an even worse story
for Latino students, who “are 68 percent more likely to have a
teacher in the same 5 percent of effectiveness.”
The
ruling should help boost California public school students’ access
to a decent education. This “tentative decision” (the court’s
words), based on the California Constitution, will likely be
appealed. While assessing the quality of education is normally a
policy matter best left to the legislature, unless you’re a lousy
teacher, this should be a cause for celebration.
Read
this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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