Activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court hears arguments in a California Teachers Association case in January. Monday, the California Supreme Court refused to hear arguments in a lawsuit in which plaintiffs sought to remove traditional teacher protections, like tenure, as a means of improving educational performances of students. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
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SACRAMENTO, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Teachers in California won a major victory Monday when the state's supreme court refused to hear a lawsuit that challenged various traditional protections for educators, such as tenure.
The California Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in Vergara v. California, a lawsuit filed in 2012 on behalf of nine public school student plaintiffs in the state. The suit alleges that students are being denied a proper education because protections sometimes keep ineffective teachers in the public school system.
The main thrust of the suit's argument was that students' academic performance would improve if school officials were more easily able to fire bad teachers.
Los Angeles Superior Court ruled in favor of Vergara in 2014, but an appeals court overturned that decision in April, which sent the matter to the California Supreme Court.
"We applaud the state Supreme Court's affirmation of the appeal court decision," California Federation of Teachers President Joshua Pechthalt said Monday. "We can now turn closer attention to solving the actual problems we confront in our schools."
The plaintiffs challenged five statutes that offer teachers protection -- including one that gives tenure after two years and another that makes it more complicated to terminate educators. Such protections have been in place in California and the rest of the United States for decades as a measure to bolster an often shallow candidate pool.
By refusing to hear the case, the Supreme Court remanded the issue to the California Legislature, which has moved cautiously on the matter, partly due to strong and influential teachers unions.
"While we are disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision to not grant review, we are grateful to the courts for shining a much-needed spotlight on these shameful laws and the enormous harm they inflict on thousands of children every year," David Welch, founder of plaintiff group Students Matter, said. "But the fight is not over."
