Tuesday, the Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) filed suit against the district for requiring dismissed teachers to reapply for jobs, as it breaches their contract. The move is part of CEO Eugene Sanders' district transformation plan, which closes 16 of the district's lowest-performing schools, overhauls many others, and relocates students and teachers across the district.
As quoted in the Plain Dealer, Sanders is calling the lawsuit ?yet another attempt by CTU to hold on to failed policies and to put the interests of teachers above the students.? Specifically, the CTU (predictably) is fighting to protect the business-as-usual seniority-based transfer process at a time when the district faces hundreds of teacher layoffs. (Emmy previously pointed out how seniority-based layoffs would especially harm the Cleveland's promising innovation schools.)
Last month, a judge upheld a class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the Los Angeles Unified school district after its attempt to fire teachers at three of the district's worst middle schools. The justification for the suit: students were being denied their legal rights to an education. Interestingly enough, this decision protected teachers with less seniority (the opposite of what Cleveland's suit would accomplish) though the impetus was more about the civil rights of the students rather than about protecting younger teachers from unfair layoffs.
...What do you think ? should courts be in the business of ?dictating budgeting and education? policies?
Add to mix of lawsuits the currently contentious state of New Jersey, where the Education Law Center is filing a suit motion* in the NJ Supreme Court that would essentially force a reversal of Gov. Christie's budget cuts to K-12 education.? Now, $1 billion in cuts is certainly extraordinary, but can you really force a state to spend money it doesn't have? As a spokesperson for Gov. Christie told The Star-Ledger:
This year's budget decisions reflect the simple fact that an endless pot of money does not exist and we cannot continue government and school funding at unrestrained levels? Our state budgeting and education policies cannot continue to be dictated by court edicts that don't adequately consider the realities of student performance and budgetary limitations.
As more and more districts and states face tough choices, such lawsuits are bound to crop up. Flypaper readers, what do you think ? should courts be in the business of ?dictating budgeting and education? policies? Are there instances where intervention is justified, and if so, when? To protect whose rights? Senior teachers, poor students, or neither (because you can spin it any which way you like)? Can you foresee your state turning into a New-Jersey-like battleground in the face of massive cuts?
And of course, if the role of courts on classrooms interests you, be sure to check out From Schoolhouse to Courthouse: The Judiciary's Role in American Education, a book released last fall by the Fordham Institute and Brookings Institution Press that takes on this very question and asks to what extent? the courts have impacted education policymaking.
-Jamie Davies O'Leary
*update: correction? the Education Law Center is filing a motion, not a suit, in the NJ Supreme Court. Scroll down to reader comments for more information on the motion, and thanks to David Sciarra for the correction.