Taking on Tenure

An earthquake struck California this month. This week, the aftershocks finally hit New York. We’re talking about Vergara v. California, the case where a judge ruled that tenure protections for teachers shortchange children of an education — especially poor and racial minorities. It “shocks the conscience,” he said, sending tremors through the educational establishment.

The Empire State is now feeling them, too. This week, a new parents group called Partnership for Educational Justice, headed by former TV news anchor Campbell Brown, teamed up with some topflight legal talent. They announced plans to back six New York students who plan to file a Vergaralike suit based on our constitution’s promise of a “sound basic education.”

Now, we would prefer reform to come from legislators rather than litigants. But looking at Albany’s recent actions — watering down teacher evaluations and killing a tuition tax credit — that’s clearly not happening on its own. Brown says her suit may be the prod Albany needs to get its act together and stop treating our publicschool system as a jobs program.

It’s about time. Because all this suit seeks is for a court to confirm what everyone already knows: When you make it all but impossible to fire bad teachers, you can’t be surprised when scores show the children aren’t learning.