Brian Doherty on Students Suing Over Bad Teachers in California

If you or I are
doing a bad job, we can generally be fired. Certain procedures
might have to be followed; a cause might have to be proved. But
most of us work with the incentive that if we do a bad enough job,
we’ll be let go.

It’s different for public school teachers in California (and for
many teachers elsewhere). If they can manage to not utterly
disgrace themselves in the first year and a half of working, they
get locked in to “permanent employment” status. Then the process of
trying to firing them is so annoying, expensive, and time consuming
that their bosses often don’t bother. And when teachers have to be
laid off for financial reasons, “last in, first out” (LIFO) rules
for teachers, costing good teachers their jobs in favor of
protecting seniority.

Do those problems with quality and expense constitute a
violation of California students’ constitutional rights to an
education? Court proceedings in California Superior Court in Los
Angeles County may settle that question. Brian Doherty explores the
details of the case.

View this article.