While some observers-including Reason’s Katie Furtick-have hailed the message sent by the recent California trial court ruling striking down several statutory teacher protections related to tenure and seniority, Sasha Volokh has a new article on Reason.org today that critiques the legal reasoning behind the ruling and suggests that it may not stand on appeal. Here’s an excerpt:
On June 10, 2014, in Vergara v. California, California trial judge Rolf Treu handed down a decision invalidating a number of California educational statutes under the state constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. The statutes relate to teacher tenure and seniority, and the basic theory is that these statutes are unconstitutional because they made it too hard to get rid of incompetent teachers in public school classrooms. While teacher tenure and seniority have come under a great deal of criticism, Judge Treu’s opinion is badly reasoned and will probably be overturned on appeal.
Read the rest of the article here. Volokh’s other legal analyses written for Reason Foundation are available here.