Why we’re fighting N.Y.’s teacher laws
Carla and John Williams are like a lot of New York parents: devoted to their kids, worried about the quality of their education, desperate for someone to act. Now they are acting — for millions of kids.
Exasperated and out of options, the Williamses and other parents plan to sue New York in hopes of ending a problem as disastrous as it sounds: state laws that end up keeping inferior teachers in our schools.
The lawsuit they will file aims to shift the balance of power behind the goal that matters most, and one spelled out in our state Constitution — the right to a sound education for all children.
At its core, the suit seeks to end laws that keep ineffective teachers in the classroom, restrict schools from dismissing them and prioritize seniority over quality when teachers are laid off.
The Williamses’ story shows why it has come to this.
One of their children, 15-yearold Jada, felt so strongly about the lack of instruction she was getting at her Rochester school that she wrote an essay about her experience. Instead of getting help, Jada was confronted about it, and her mom received harassing calls from teachers. Subjected to unfair treatment, Jada eventually had to transfer schools.
The excruciating ordeal began with a teenager’s request for sound teaching. And it was enough to turn her parents into plaintiffs, becoming one of the six initial families — four of whom are from New York City — who will be suing the state. As Carla Williams put it: “The reality is that this lawsuit is a last resort.”
Quality teaching should not come down to the luck of the draw. It is foundational for life. And yet it is unequally distributed — painfully so — across our state, with poor and minority students disproportionately bearing the brunt of ineffective instruction.
There are policy reasons for this. Our disciplinary system for teachers rarely works; one study found that the average process for attempting to remove a teacher took 520 days, and a staggering 830 days when a teacher was charged with incompetence. What do we say to the students who will never get those days back?
The families in this case are looking for fairness based on the facts and the law, and they draw inspiration from what just played out this month in California. In the landmark case of Vergara vs. California, the judge said the lasting and harmful effects of inferior teaching are so blatant that it “shocks the conscience.” The court shot down all the laws in question in that state — laws strikingly similar to those at issue in this new legal challenge in New York.
The New York suit will assert that our state laws undermine students in three basic ways: l Seniority. The suit will challenge the “last-in, first-out” mandate, a policy that forces school districts to base layoffs on years on the job instead of performance in the job. l Tenure. The state requires school administrators to decide whether to give tenure to teachers after just three years. This amount of time does not give school leaders sufficient time to judge whether a teacher has proven competent enough to merit permanent employment. l Dismissals. New York’s disciplinary statutes make it nearly impossible to dismiss teachers identified as substandard, and it is the students who are left to deal with that.
State and city officials may assert that they are finally working on a better evaluation system for teachers — one that will finally remove ineffective teachers and help others improve.
But there’s no guarantee it’ll work. In fact, last year, nearly 92% of the state’s teachers outside New York City were deemed effective or highly effective. If this is the case, how can 69% of students fail to show they are proficient in math or English Language Arts testing?
What parents want is not radical, but reasonable: Equal access to good teachers across New York State. Their day in court is coming.
All students deserve good educators