In a landmark decision with national ramifications, a Los Angeles judge on June 10 struck down the state’s laws governing teacher tenure, firings and layoffs.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu ruled that the laws violate students’ constitutional right to educational equality because they protect bad teachers, harm students and disproportionately affect poor and minority pupils.

Treu said that the evidence of how poor teachers affect students “shocks the conscience” and that “there is also no dispute that there are a significant number of grossly ineffective teachers currently active in California classrooms.”

Treu ordered the state to stop enforcing its tenure, dismissal and layoff laws but stayed his orders pending possible appeals by the state and California’s two major teacher unions.

Unions denounced the decision in the case known as Vergara vs. California.

“The millionaires behind this case have successfully diverted attention from the real problems of public education,” said Fred Glass of the California Federation of Teachers.

CFT President Joshua Pechthalt called the suit “fundamentally anti-public education, scapegoating teachers for problems originating in underfunding, poverty and economic inequality.”

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of nine schoolchildren and their families by Students Matter, a group funded largely by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dave Welch. Welch pumped several million dollars into the effort. The group’s high-profile legal team included Theodore Boutrous Jr., who represented President George W. Bush before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2000 recount of Florida presidential ballots.

The case is expected to spur similar challenges to teacher protections in cities and states across the country.

San Jose Mercury News, June 10

Education Week, June 10