A lawsuit seeking to have New York’s teacher tenure protections ruled unconstitutional will advance, thanks to a judge’s ruling late Friday afternoon.
Teachers unions filed a motion to dismiss the case, but their motion was denied.
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New York State United Teachers, along with the state and the city of New York, had argued that legislative changes in April made the suit unnecessary. But Justice Philip Minardo decided those changes were not grounds enough for dismissal. “The legislature’s marginal changes affecting, e.g., the term of probation and/or the disciplinary proceedings applicable to teachers, are insufficient to achieve the required result,” Minardo wrote in his decision.
The legislative changes make it easier for school districts to fire bad teachers and award tenure after four years of teaching instead of three.
The parents seeking to invalidate the teacher tenure protections argue the law robs children of their right to a basic education.
“Teachers in New York City are more likely to die on the job than be replaced because of poor performance,” according to the Partnership for Educational Justice, which is backing the case. Roughly 30 percent of New York students are proficient in math and reading.
The Partnership for Educational Justice was founded by Campbell Brown, the award-winning journalist who also founded the education news website The 74.
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In one example of why parents find the suit necessary, Brown tells the story of parents who dropped their students off for the first day of school and found out that their first grade teacher had previously been found guilty of physically abusing students. Instead of being fired, the teacher took anger management classes and was fined $2,500 before being sent back to the classroom.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
