In 2012, a non-profit organization Students Matter filed Vergara v. California, a lawsuit claiming five teacher employment laws disproportionately hurt poor and minority children by forcing on them the state’s worst-performing teachers. In June 2014, a California judge struck down all five laws, including a permanent employment statute, informally known as tenure, giving teachers due-process rights after two years of probation; three statutes that outline complex procedures to dismiss teachers; and the layoff statute, known as LIFO for Last In, First Out, mandating layoffs by seniority with some exceptions for teachers with hard-to-find expertise. The State and the state’s two largest teachers unions plan to appeal the decision.
