California court rules for unions in due process case

For more information, contact:
Chris Williams
651-292-4816 (work)
651-247-5539 (cell)

Megan Boldt
651-292-4818 (work)
651-245-9163 (cell)

ST. PAUL, Minn. April 14, 2016 – The California Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed a decision of the trial court that threatened due process protections for teachers in that state. The case had many similarities to a lawsuit also filed Thursday in Minnesota.

The appeals court ruled the plaintiffs failed to show California's due process and layoff laws: "inevitably cause a certain group of students to receive an education inferior to the education received by other students. Although the statutes may lead to the hiring and retention of more ineffective teachers than a hypothetical alternative system would, the statutes do not address the assignment of teachers; instead, administrators—not the statutes—ultimately determine where teachers within a district are assigned to teach. Critically, plaintiffs failed to show that the statutes themselves make any certain group of students more likely to be taught by ineffective teachers than any other group of students."

The appellate court overruled a lower court, which had ruled against the unions.

Education Minnesota President Denise Specht said, "This is a great victory for teachers who depend on due process protections when they speak the unvarnished truth about the learning conditions in their schools."

She continued: "Unfortunately, this lawsuit and others like it distract from the simple fact that the vast majority of teachers do a good job under difficult circumstances. If we want to prepare every child for a successful life, Minnesota needs real solutions – like increasing access to high-quality preschool, full-service community schools, recruiting and retaining more teachers of color, hiring more support staff to reduce the school-to-prison pipeline, and making college more affordable for everyone. And we need to stop blaming teachers for things outside their control."

About Education Minnesota
Education Minnesota is the voice for professional educators and students. Education Minnesota’s members include teachers and education support professionals in Minnesota’s public school districts, faculty members at Minnesota’s community and technical colleges and University of Minnesota campuses in Duluth and Crookston, retired educators and student teachers. Education Minnesota is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AFL-CIO.