Dive Brief:
- After an appellate court ruled in favor of the defendant, plaintiffs in the high-profile teacher tenure case Vergara v. California have now asked the state's Supreme Court to hear the case and to consider overturning the lower court's ruling.
- The case hinges on the fact that California offers teacher tenure and job security protections after two years in the classroom; these laws are more lenient than those in all but four other states, SFGate.com reports.
- If the California Supreme Court decides to hear the case, it will likely happen sometime this summer.
Dive Insight:
Do California's teacher tenure and seniority laws violate the right to an equal education for the state's students? That's what plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim, and that's why they're trying to take the matter to the Supreme Court, saying that the most recent decision by an appellate court was flawed and had not properly considered evidence.
Decisions thus far in Vergara v. California have ping-ponged back and forth, with a June 2014 decision made by a Los Angeles Superior Court ruling in favor of reforming the teacher tenure rules. That ruling was reversed on appeal last month, and this latest move may mean yet another reversal, should California's highest court decide to hear the case. Education experts have been divided on the issue.
The ramifications of this case will echo throughout the U.S., likely setting precedent over how teacher tenure and seniority rules function. Currently, a similar lawsuit filed in Minnesota alleges teacher job protections are unconstitutional and breed inequity by protecting educators who do an inadequate job teaching disadvantaged children. New York has also wrestled with the issue, and in North Carolina, another recent lawsuit related to the issue ultimately resulted in the state's Supreme Court affirming job protections for veteran teachers.