Vergara v. California
| Vergara v. California | |
|---|---|
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| Court | California Courts of Appeal |
| Decided | April 14, 2016 |
| Citation(s) | 246 Cal. App. 4th 619; Docket No. B258589S (Cal. Ct. App. 2016) |
Vergara v. California was a lawsuit in the California state courts, which dealt with a child's right to education and to instruction by effective teachers. The suit was filed in May 2012 by lawyers on behalf of nine California public school student plaintiffs. It alleged that several California statutes on teacher tenure, layoffs, and dismissal violate the Constitution of California by retaining some "grossly ineffective" teachers and thus denying equal protection to students assigned to the teachers. Furthermore, according to the complaint, the statutes had a disparate impact on poor and minority students, who were more likely to be assigned to a grossly-ineffective teacher.
On June 10, 2014, after a two-month trial, Judge Rolf M. Treu of the California Superior Court ruled that all of the statutes challenged by the student plaintiffs were unconstitutional; the ruling was finalized in August 2014. On April 14, 2016, a three judge panel on the Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's decision and held that the challenged statutes did not violate the California Constitution. In May 2016, lawyers for the school students asked the California Supreme Court to reconsider the Court of Appeal reversal and reinstate the trial court's ruling in their favor. On August 22, 2016 the State's highest court declined to review the case in a 4-3 decision, thus permitting the Court of Appeal decision upholding the statutes to stand.
The lawsuit identified five separate statutes that kept ineffective teachers in the classroom. The argument by the student plaintiffs in the lawsuit was that tenure decisions had to be made too quickly, and that once tenure was granted it was too difficult to remove a teacher if a mistake had been made in granting tenure. The presence of ineffective teachers necessarily meant that some students were denied their constitutional right to a quality education. The defendants argued that it was possible to remove bad teachers and that these laws did not cause bad teachers to be in the schools.
Certain provisions of the California Education Code conferred "permanent employment" status (or tenure) on any teacher who had not been informed that his or her teaching contract had been cancelled by March of the second year of teaching. Permanent status required school districts to follow specific evidentiary and procedural requirements before firing a teacher. Lawyers for teachers unions in Vergara argued that this was not equivalent to lifetime employment, but instead just recognition of the due process requirements that would have to be satisfied if teachers were to be fired for any one of a number of specified reasons.
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