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Thursday, March 13, 2014

K-12 News Network | Is LAUSD Superintendent Deasy the Defendant or the Plaintiff in Vergara v. California?

K-12 News Network | Is LAUSD Superintendent Deasy the Defendant or the Plaintiff in Vergara v. California?:



Is LAUSD Superintendent Deasy the Defendant or the Plaintiff in Vergara v. California?



Do laws protecting teachers from politically motivated or personal vendetta firings by principals or disgruntled parents hurt students somehow? Edsource has been following the lawsuit against California and its teacher workplace laws closely and has a good summary of what’s at stake in Vergara v. California:
In the lawsuit, nine students from Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified and three other districts are challenging longstanding legal protections that their attorneys say lead to hiring and keeping “grossly ineffective teachers.” The suit aims at five laws that the plaintiffs say interfere with districts’ ability to make effective decisions: statutes granting tenure or permanent status to probationary teachers after two years, mandating teacher layoffs based on years on the job and setting up a complex dismissal process that turns over appeals to an independent panel. Because disproportionate numbers of bad teachers end up teaching poor and minority children, the lawsuit says, the laws violate the state Constitution’s guarantee to all children of the opportunity for an equal education and should be thrown out.
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy is one of the defendants. But as one astute observer of the Vergera v. California lawsuit on teacher due process