Progressives should support the decision that struck down California's teacher tenure law and prioritize the interests of students over teachers, said liberal constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe.
In an op-ed for
USA Today, the Harvard Law Professor and legal adviser to Students Matter said that his support for the decision earned him many hostile messages accusing him of betraying the Democratic Party, organized labor, and even his own public school teachers but said his views are not inconsistent with his ideology.
"My support for curtailing teacher tenure and last-in, first-out layoff rules when they put the needs of adults before children is not a departure from my progressive roots. Rather, it is a natural and common-sense outgrowth," Tribe wrote.
Tribe said that while he is a "fervent defender of teachers and collective bargaining," the laws in California grant tenure after two or fewer years of experience, and therefore too soon after hiring.
He said the system "shortchanges teachers who need additional training, and it all but guarantees that whole classes of children will receive a subpar education."
The ruling against the tenure laws, Tribe argues, does not challenge unionization or tenure for teachers but "only invalidates burdensome rules that give tenure a bad name, as though job security were the primary goal of the education system."
"Progressives should be part of the solution. We can't succumb to simplistic defenses of the distorted teacher protection schemes," Tribe wrote.
"The future of public education and of the teaching profession can be brighter only when we place students' rights first and foremost on our list of priorities."
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