Dive Brief:
- A coalition of dozens of parents and education advocates has pledged to stand beside the New York City and state education departments, which were recently sued by the New York City Parents Union for failing to provide adequate education for all students.
- Filed two-weeks ago, the New York City Parents Union's lawsuit was inspired by the Vergara v. California verdict, which ruled teacher tenure laws in that state unconstitutional.
- In the New York case, 11 students are identified who allegedly suffered at the hands of tenure-protected teachers.
Dive Insight:
While the California lawsuit is currently being appealed, that doesn't mean its waves aren't being felt across the nation. This New York lawsuit is just the beginning. According to the Daily News, journalist and advocate Campbell Brown recently announced her own plans to file a comparable suit in Albany, NY (which, according to a report by Media Matters, would be just the latest conflict of interest in her coverage of these issues) .
New York, however, is much different from California. While in California, teachers are evaluated after 18 months for tenure, evaluation doesn't occur in New York for three years. This difference means there is more data when deciding who gets tenure in New York. Additionally, New York has new teacher evaluation systems in the works that would also hopefully weed out poor-performing teachers. These realities give the New York suit slightly less standing.
