CA judge tenatively strikes down unreasonable publc school teacher tenure and due process laws.

Public School Teachers Unions were once trying to be part of the solution to our educational woes.  Now they are part of the problem many places.  Politicians bought teacher and union support by making generous pension offers and making it too quick and easy for teachers to get tenured status and much too difficult to dismiss incompetent teachers.  Similar dynamics and results for other employees  have bankrupted, or nearly bankrupted, a number of American jurisdictions and resulted in deteriorating public services.  Now a state court judge in CA has had the courage to expose this travesty.  He ruled that excessive teacher tenure and due process rights have resulted in too many bad teachers ending up in poor and minority dominated schools.   Low-income and minority students are disproportionately stuck with `grossly’ ineffective teachers because of these laws. He concluded that the challenged laws violate the students’ fundamental right to equality of education and/or a quality education.  This is a right under many state constitutions and could also raise 14th Amendment equal protection issues..  There will be appeals and the ruling may not stand, but it has finally brought the issue to public attention.