Michelle Rhee, 'Parent Trigger' Supporters Are Behind Huge L.A. Lawsuit to Strip Teachers of Job Protection

By Simone Wilson Tue., May 15 2012 at 11:45 AM

Rhee, ballsy reformer, cracks down on California.

Update: Rhee herself and Parent Revolution didn't file the lawsuit -- they're just on the plaintiff's advisory board. Clarifications throughout.

California's teachers have long been protected by a series of state laws -- lobbied into existence by powerful teachers unions -- that make the ineffective ones almost impossible to fire.

Now, in the largest state lawsuit of kind, a new organization called Students Matter, advised by the key players behind the controversial "Parent Trigger" law, alleges in L.A. Superior Court that strict tenure and seniority rules are ruining the K-12 system:

"These laws force school administrators to grant new teachers 'permanent employment' after only 18 months on the job -- well before the teachers' effectiveness can be determined -- and force school administrators to keep teachers in the classroom long after they have demonstrated themselves to be grossly ineffective."

Spokespeople for both the California Teachers Association and United Teachers Los Angeles tell LA Weekly that they're still reviewing the lawsuit, and won't be commenting at this time.

But the suit is likely throwing union offices into a tizzy today. It would be a huge blow to their clients, and would essentially strip cushy union contracts of all that makes them so cush. Union executives have worked long and hard to make California's teachers so untouchable, and this legal attack seeks to unravel all their hard work. See: "LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons."

The enemy is a familiar one. The advisory board for Students Matter, the plaintiff, is a who's-who of America's biggest radical reformers and charter advocates. Here are some of the advisors, according to the Los Angeles Times:

• Students First, headed by the ever-controversial Michelle Rhee. The former D.C. chancellor has become a covergirl for the movement to take the country's K-12 system out of the hands of a government-run, self-protected monopoly.

• Democrats for Education Reform, whose California branch is headed by Gloria Romero, former state senator and author of the Parent Trigger law. The law, which lets parents seize failing schools from district admin, is still struggling for its first victory.

• Parent Revolution, the L.A.-based organization helping parents put the Parent Trigger into effect. So far the org has targeted elementary schools in Compton and the remote desert town of Adelanto.

• New Schools Venture Fund, headed by former Board of Education President Ted Mitchell, a huge advocate for the Parent Trigger movement. When new Governor Jerry Brown first took office, he kicked Mitchell off the board in favor of more union-leaning (or at least neutral) education experts.

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has come out in full support of the new lawsuit, as well as smaller ones like it. In general, Deasy has chosen the anti-union camp during his year at the top of LAUSD, cracking down on teacher misconduct and pushing for simpler firing capabilities.

Deasy tells the Los Angeles Times today that the new suit "is aggressively going after long-term issues which have thwarted the rights of students to a high-quality education. I wish California had corrected its laws before things had to get to this level of interventions."

Here it is, in full.

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

Michelle Rhee, Parent Revolution, Parent Trigger, Students Matter, teacher reform, teachers unions

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James

So let me get this straight:

Veteran teachers, with years and decades of experience, are unqualified to teach children.

But according to these same "reform" groups, Teach for America "teachers," who are really temporary interns just passing through on their way to law school, and who have had only five weeks of training before being put in front of a classroom of kids, are qualified.

Please tell me in what other professional field decades of experience are considered a detriment, rather than a sign that one is good at one's job.

Please also tell me exactly how many of these "reformers" have put their own children in classrooms run by first-year "Teach" for America interns.

Joe Ventura

"Update: Rhee herself and Parent Revolution didn't file the lawsuit -- they're just on the plaintiff's advisory board. Clarifications throughout."--expect in the headline.

Joe Ventura

*except

CarolineSF

The states with the least amount of union protection -- where teachers can be fired at will -- are consistently also the states with the lowest academic achievement; and the states with the strongest unions are consistently the states with the highest achievement.

That indisputable fact blows out of the water the notion that the whole problem is the supposed impossibility of firing bad teachers.

In addition, the nations with the highest academic achievement respect and support their teachers rather than attacking, disparaging and undermining them as the current billionaire-backed "education reform" operations do. Waging war on teachers is guaranteed to harm schools -- teachers need to be supported and need to be partners. It's really strange that the L.A. Weekly is so bound and determined to harm schools and children, and to boost those whose sole goal is to divert as much public funding as possible into private pockets, no matter who is harmed in the process. Is that really what you went into journalism to do?

mermal

Please print accurate information: It takes 2 full years to gain permanent status in California which includes Los Angeles Unified. Also during that time new teachers are assigned a support provider (mentor) with additional requirements to fulfill during that 2 year period and the submission of a very extensive portfolio that is submitted which includes work samples. In Los Angeles teachers do not have tenure they have due process. Permanent teachers who under perform are given an opportunity to improve through the Peer Assistance and Review program. No administrator is "forced" to keep an under performing teacher. It takes an administrator who is knowledgeable about instruction( too many are not) to properly evaluate a teacher and take the steps required to remove a teacher. In some states the teacher union participates in a peer review program in which trained teachers counsel,assist, and evaluate, teachers.

People such as Michelle Rhee ( who taught for less than a year), and Mr. Deasy believe that the results of a 4-6 day multiple choice bubble in test determine the quality of a teacher. I find it interesting that only in education (specifically teachers) is experience a bad thing and not valued. But then experienced teachers are more expensive and in the current economic climate perhaps the real reason the experienced teachers are not valued is because they cost more.There seldom if ever seem to be mention of ineffective performance concerns when it comes to administrators, or non school site, upper management personnel( making figures).

It is common knowledge that the hiring of Mr.Deasy, and the election of the Villaragosa sponsored members of the school board is to facilitate the privatization and breakup of LAUSD and the teacher's union. This is evident in the give away of numerous schools to privately run charter schools. It is also common knowledge that this is the primary focus and shared goal of Ms. Rhee with regards to the privatization of public schools. Therefore it is no surprise that they would support the lawsuits.

Luis Sanchez

How come all these supposedly liberal Democrats at these "non-profits" who have never taught in a public school classroom or only taught one or two years and refused to do it for the rest of their lives ... want to control public school funds? Maybe because these "non profit" jobs that advocate for public financing of charter schools (run by the same operatives that pay for the non-profits) are the only jobs or the most lucrative jobs these "liberal Democrats" can get in this economy.

Dave Anthony

Well, at least you don't let your ideology get in the way of reading and analyzing a situation.

Leonard Isenberg

For a different take on this issue, check out the following blog post and video: http://www.perdaily.com/2012/0...

A 50% turnover of all teachers within 5 years might have something to do with social promotion and a failure to maintain discipline in LAUSD classrooms. Attacking seniority is just a way to cut costs on the road to privatization. If you were going to be operated on, I don't think you would prefer somebody just out of medical school as opposed to a 20 year seasoned veteran teacher. So why are novice teachers preferable? There is no way seniority at all schools in LAUSD should be used to dump the most problematic students on new teachers. But there is a much more equitable way of dealing with this problem, then getting rid of more expensive teachers who earned this status by the expertise derived from years of experience.

DAinLA

Michelle Rhee is a total failure and a bad one at that. We have a major problem with our schools but you don't fix bad with more bad.

http://voices.washingtonpost.c...

DAinLA

Michelle Rhee has been a failure. Why follow her lead. Things need to change, obviously, but you don't fix the bad with the bad.http://voices.washingtonpost.c...