Thuy Vu (moderator): A Los Angeles county superior court judge ruled that California's teacher tenure laws hurt students by making it too hard to dismiss ineffective teachers. The decision says that the impact of these and other seniority rules is even more harmful for minority students in underserved communities. The lawsuit, Vergara v. California, was filed by a group called Students Matter with funding from a Silicon Valley businessman. The teachers' unions plan to appeal the ruling, saying that in the long run, it will harm the students it intends to help.
Watch the interview: The “Teacher Tenure Threatened” segments starts at 6:20 into the clip and runs until 16:54.
Further reporting at KQED: Teacher Tenure Laws in State Unconstitutional, Judge Rules
Jennnifer Lynn Wolf is a senior lecturer and the Education Undergraduate Minor Director at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
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