By Simone Wilson
(From LA Weekly, May 15th 2012)
Update: Rhee herself and Parent Revolution didn’t file the lawsuit — they’re just on the plaintiff’s advisory board. Clarifications throughout.
California’s teachers have long been protected by a series of state laws — lobbied into existence by powerful teachers unions — that make the ineffective ones almost impossible to fire.
Now, in the largest state lawsuit of kind, a new organization called Students Matter, advised by the key players behind the controversial “Parent Trigger” law, alleges in L.A. Superior Court that strict tenure and seniority rules are ruining the K-12 system:
“These laws force school administrators to grant new teachers ‘permanent employment’ after only 18 months on the job — well before the teachers’ effectiveness can be determined — and force school administrators to keep teachers in the classroom long after they have demonstrated themselves to be grossly ineffective.”
Spokespeople for both the California Teachers Association and United Teachers Los Angeles tell LA Weekly that they’re still reviewing the lawsuit, and won’t be commenting at this time.
But the suit is likely throwing union offices into a tizzy today. It would be a huge blow to their clients, and would essentially strip cushy union contracts of all that makes them so cush. Union executives have worked long and hard to make California’s teachers so untouchable, and this legal attack seeks to unravel all their hard work. See: “LAUSD’s Dance of the Lemons.”