Dive Brief:
- On Thursday, closing arguments will be made in a lawsuit students filed against the state of California over ineffective teachers. Though a decision is at the court’s discretion, the closing arguments indicate a verdict will be made in the coming months.
- The nine students, supported by StudentsMatter, sued the state of California in January, alleging several of the state's education statues – teacher tenure, dismissal, and layoffs—violate their right to a quality education. The plaintiffs specifically argued minority and poor students are most in need of effective teachers and, in California, least likely to be taught by them.
- The case has been highly contentious, and if won could have ripple effects in the state's education legislature. The California Teachers Association, a teacher union, intervened hoping to maintain the state’s current laws.
Dive Insight:
Many following the case believe the court is not the appropriate place for this debate, and instead teacher dismissal should be dealt with by legislature.
The counter to this belief is that many unions have used courts to overturn school choice programs, so it seems fitting that ed reformers would use the same strategy.
The lawsuit is funded by David Welch, a Silicon Valley millionaire and the founder of StudentsMatter. The San Francisco-based organization has partnered with Teach for America Bay Area for events in the past, and some of the witnesses testifying on behalf of the students are TFA teachers. This brings an interesting angle to the lawsuit’s argument that Calufornia is failing students by providing ineffective teachers in low-income schools. While it’s clear the suit is mainly pointing fingers at ineffective tenured teachers, could StudentsMatter’s ties to TFA indicate they believe recent graduates with five weeks of training are the more “effective teachers” they’re looking for?