The Vergara trial in Los Angeles is an effort funded by a very wealthy man to eliminate due process for teachers in California. The theory of the case is that when teachers have tenure (due process), then it is hard to fire bad teachers. Thus, the civil rights of minority students are violated by the very concept of due process, because more of those who teach them should be fired. But tenure ties the hands of their administrators, so students are harmed.
The lead plaintiff, a student named Elizabeth Vergara, had a teacher named Anthony Mize. As it happens, Mize doesn’t have tenure and has never had a complaint lodged against him or a disciplinary proceeding. If he was the “bad” teacher as the plaintiffs’ attorneys claim, why wasn’t he fired?
One of his colleagues wrote to describe him.
Next month will mark 20 years that I have taught with LAUSD.
I had the privilege of working with Mr. Anthony Mize , one of the alleged “grossly
incompetent teachers”, named in this suit. for four of those years. Despite the precarious and ever-vacillating status accorded him by LAUSD, the RIF notices, his relegation to long-term sub status in his own previous classroom and the subsequent loss of benefits such as paid sick leave and holidays, I never saw him give less than 100% to the school, and to his students. Mize is a natural teacher, knows his content area and is sensitive to his students needs, both as learners and as human beings. He is sorely missed at our school site, To anyone who has worked alongside this young man, it would be almost laughable that he could be so singled-out, were it not so deplorable. The latest insult in a long line of abusive treatment by the Powers That Be… As an early commenter stated, if Mr. Mize was the best example of a poor teacher that the plaintiffs could summon, they really don’t have much of a case.
Does anyone remember Attorney Joseph Welch’s reply to Senator Joe Mccarthy in the Army-Macarthy hearings? It resounds in my ears as I follow this case:
” Have you left,Sir, no sense of decency? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” (I paraphrase)
That quietly uttered statement is widely credited for the beginning of the end of the tyranny and witch hunts initiated by Senator Mccarthy. We must all continue to speak truth to power, for when we do, tyrants fall. Thank you, Anthony, for all of us.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Here’s my latest on Vergara. http://atthechalkface.com/2014/03/26/the-gates-foundation-met-research-does-not-provide-evidence-for-the-anti-teacher-vergara-v-california/#
We are talking, here, about ordinary due process. It’s a principle deeply enshrined on our law.
The oligarchs will not be satisfied until they have absolute, unilateral authority to make whatever decisions they feel like making about the lives of others.
They want absolute power.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It’s all just so evil, evil, evil. Name the deforms and those getting rich, rich, rich. Ergo…all this creepy data collection…for marketing junk.
The answer is: No, they have no shame. Another good teacher sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed and power.
If Mr. Mize was not tenured, then he was a probationary teacher and, as Diane points out, could be fired for any reason, or no reason at all.
If this is true, then the factual basis of the case is nothing more than a plutocrat’s fantasy. Yet somehow the case was allowed to proceed, despite it’s ignorance of reality.
I guess Ronald Reagan was right, after all, and in the world of so-called education reform, facts are stupid things.
It sure doesn’t make sense, does it? But then again plutocrats have nothing but contempt for a female-dominated profession, so they are trying to destroy it hook, line, and sinker.
They really need to call me in as a witness because I KNOW this “due process” top and bottom having experienced it.
You don’t have to be “bad” to “get it” in public education. It is laughably easy to get rid of unwanted teachers while principals and other administrators are backed to the hilt.
The reason “due process” exists for teachers and other public employees is because of the concept that because they work for government, their jobs are a property right, and therefore the government cannot deprive someone of property without “due process.”
The hearings, of course, are shams.
Disgusting
I am merely a former teacher who was caught in the war on teachers when it took out the NYC veteran teachers, and I was a celebrated educator. I b the Vegara case there, and I am passing it on here.
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/02/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
Here is what Lenny Isenberg wrote about this case and what it means .
Contrary to what was asserted in 2010 with the Reed vs. State of California case, and now with the Vergara vs. State of California case, cutting the budget by attacking teachers at the top of the salary scale is the real motive of both the plaintiffs and the defendants in these put up cases that are anything but adversarial as actually required by law. The well-being of students and their constitutional right to an education has nothing to do with why teacher seniority is under attack. Corporate interests have gotten behind these two cases with collusive lawsuits against the State of California and the Los Angeles Unified School District as defendants, when these defendants actually share the plaintiffs desire to destroy a professional and fairly compensated teaching force solely for the motive of profit to more and more hedge fund run charters and the further dumbing down of our future electorate, so the average citizen will not have enough of an education to meaningfully comprehend just how badly they are being screwed.
If “teacher quality and effectiveness” as well as having the best education for students in “high-poverty and high-minority” areas that have not done well in the past was really the issue, insuring an environment of reasonable discipline, while finally eliminating destabilizing social promotion would have been implemented long ago. Most poor and minority students enter LAUSD behind and are never brought up to grade-level in a timely manner, which becomes more impossible as years go by. Inner-city predominantly poor and minority filled schools are not just bad for the students, they are toxic for any serious teacher not willing to go along with the complete lack of rigor mindlessly enforced by entrenched LAUSD administration. No secondary single-subject credentialed teacher- whatever their level of seniority- can be expected to teach humiliated students that LAUSD administration continues to put in classes years beyond their objective ability. Clearly this is the recipe for the disaster that LAUSD continues to be, which has nothing to do with teacher seniority.
The reason that schools like Liechty, Gompers, and Markham Middle Schools, mentioned in the Reed case, were so adversely impacted when it came to loss of predominantly novice teaching staff, was because any teacher with enough seniority wouldn’t be caught dead in a school where there was no support for excellence in education that the plaintiffs in the aforementioned cases supposedly so desperately claim they want in their lawsuit. Any teacher who insists on excellence and has the teaching skill to do it has been systematically targeted over the last 5 years, brought up on fabricated charges, and removed or forced into early retirement.
Both Reed and Vergara purposefully ignore the context in which senior-based reductions take place. No mention is made of excellent teachers being completely undermined in a system that values Average Daily Attendance (ADA) payments from the State more than whether the students are actually learning something of value in a timely manner. The fact that 50% of Roosevelt High School students have quit school before ever reaching the 12th grade and that only 30% of the graduating class has the A-G requirements necessary to get them into the University of California schools says it all, but is conveniently ignored in Vergara.
What is the financial and pedagogic cost of 50% of new teachers quitting LAUSD within their first 5 years of teaching? Why are they quitting? What’s the cost of having to constantly replace that level of attrition to a cash strapped public education system? If the students were really the concern in Reed and Vergara, wouldn’t some of those behind the financing of Reed and Vergara have found more fertile ground in trying to find out why so many initially dedicated teachers leave the profession like they are abandoning a sinking ship. But, alas, one would have to look at those running LAUSD into the ground, instead of scapegoating teachers, while their inept union United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) sits by and does nothing.
Susan, your comment is in depth and satisfying to read. . . . .well thought out and highly analytical. Thank you!
“to destroy a professional and fairly compensated teaching force solely for the motive of profit to more and more hedge fund run charters and the further dumbing down of our future electorate, so the average citizen will not have enough of an education to meaningfully comprehend just how badly they are being screwed.”
“Any teacher who insists on excellence and has the teaching skill to do it has been systematically targeted over the last 5 years, brought up on fabricated charges, and removed or forced into early retirement.”
Susan,
You are right on target! These two points should be shouted and quoted daily, over and over and over…..Thank you!!!
When Obama clapped, that began his open season on teachers and schools.
And so it began his virulent attack on the American middle and working class . . . .
Obama is an empty shell of a leader. . . . at best, he can approximate what it takes to be president. Other than that, he is corrupt beyond belief.
What a hideous and groteque disappointment.
Not that the GOP is any better . . . . .
Sorry, Robert. SOME of the GOP are as corrupt, but not all. Ted Cruz is an honest man.
But, the way the Democrats have supinely let Harry Reid and President Obama walk all over them, that really is worse than the GOP, though the GOP under Bush was, I agree, equally as bad. But to say that the GOP is as bad as the DEMS is surely an embarrassment to the DEMS, isn’t it?
I wish I could disagree with you but sadly you are right.
With all due respect, if the “colleague” is a teacher, he may not know how another teacher in a school teaches, even one teaching next door, since evaluations are or should be confidential to colleagues. There may be more than meets the eye here, and I would like to know what evidence of bad teaching the student has.
changemaker…evaluations may be confidential, but one does know how the teacher next door is teaching…really. But it would be interesting to know what the evidence is, wouldn’t it?
Where did you get the idea that evaluation are confidential? VAM scores have been published in LA, NYC, FL, and across the country for a few years now.
I can guess that the main “evidence of bad teaching” is based solely on the students’ test scores since that is all that matters now in American education.
Chris, very few places have made evaluations public. It is irresponsible since the ratings are so flawed. Teachers should sue. What other public employees see their job evaluations released to the media? Police? Members of the legislature? Firefighters?
I am a teacher at LAUSD . I think the Vergara case puts all the blame on teachers if a student is unsuccessful. I think the seniority system works and that two years is enough time to evaluate whether or not a teacher is ineffective.During this probationary period the teacher ,if deemed unsatisfactory,should terminated. As a teacher in a low-income area so many different factors affect a students classroom performance. It could be outside circumstances that lead to a student being unsuccessful.If a parent doesn’t support the teacher and the parent,student and teacher aren’t all on the same page ,problems will occur.
I work in a high poverty area. Have been for years. Although good teaching is important,it isthe IQ of the student that is the most significant factor. So if you’re dumb, do like the Vergaras and sell yoursself anyway you can.
(Regarding publicizing teacher’s evaluations/ratings/ testing results and Ms. Ravitchs question about why other public employees aren’t similarly “outed” in the media.): well, just imagine it…we could publish ratings of “Highly Effective to “Least Effective” LAPD officers, with a spreadsheet denoting arrest rates, conviction rates, which division they work in and perhaps the overall crime rate for their area, and whether crime has increased or decreased on their watch, (their “VAM”), and even a column for any citizen complaints against them and then list their names, in order, in the LA Times… said publication having had no qualms about doing just that to LAUSD teachers, leading to at least one known suicide by a sensitive and despondent teacher…(Rest in Peace, Rigoberto.)..as well as a life-long aversion to the Times /boycott by me, a former subscriber.)
As they say, don’t mourn; organize. The media would never have the gall to do that to the cops, I suppose because they’re armed and can pull you over. Teachers are too easy a target.
If they do decide to go after the cops though, I would request that my students’ test scores be multiplied by the rating of the least effective cop in their neighborhood…As we live and work in the Housing Projects, I suspect that our test scores might possibly be influenced by our High-Crime, High-Poverty environment. Is there a way to see the correlation between the homicide rate for a three mile radius around our school and our test scores.? There’s a piece of data that would actually interest me… Wouldn’t you think that poverty and the ever-present underlying threat of violence would constitute a violation of someone’s civil rights? The kids? The parents? or even, maybe…the teachers’?….Hey, Billionaires! there’s money to be had in public safety as well! Bunch of fat lazy cops eating donuts and waiting for those million dollar pensions while the country goes to hell! More public employees whose job, I am sure, you could do much better…Good luck with that.
My goodness, what are you people smoking? How can you possibly argue that the tenure laws are simply “due process”? Workers in every other profession are protected by our legal system and due process, but it’s still reasonably possible for a company to terminate a bad employee. The “due process” that exists in schools is an extreme job protection system that makes it virtually impossible for a school to fire even a child molester! And when the California legislature tried to change that, your union pulled their strings on their puppet politicians and shot that down.
The system must change. Had the unions made some level of compromise over the years, and accepted publicly what we all know to be true… that some teachers are bad and should not be teaching our kids…. then the Vergara case wouldn’t have been necessary. You created the monster, and I hope hope hope the judge tosses these insane laws out.
David B, I disagree. Nearly half those who enter teaching are gone within five years. We have a huge problem recruiting teachers, supporting them, and retaining them. Removing due process protections will not make teaching more attractive. There are districts and states that lack due process but I know of no evidence that this improved education.
Reblogged this on anthonymize.net and commented:
My former colleague from Charles Maclay Middle School wrote to Dr. Ravitch in my defense. Her letter of support was posted on Dr. Ravitch’s blog.