A judge decided on Thursday that New York City's Department of Education and teacher's union must face a lawsuit filed by Campbell Brown that challenges the city's existing tenure laws.
The lawsuit filed by Brown and a group of New York City public school parents argues that the city's teachers are "virtually guaranteed" lifetime employment due to the ease of obtaining tenure, and that the city's children are unable to obtain their "constitutional right to a sound basic education."
Judge Philip Minardo ruled that the city "will not close the courthouse door to parents and children with viable constitutional claims," according to the New York Post.
"This court…will not close the courthouse door to parents and children with viable constitutional claims," wrote Judge Philip Minardo in a significant decision on the controversy. [...]
The suit says that nearly all of the city’s teachers—97 percent—get tenure and are "virtually guaranteed lifetime employment regardless of their in-class performance or effectiveness."
The city and UFT countered that the advocates use "specious statistics" to make their argument. They add that the matter belongs in the legislature.
But Justice Minardo writes that the defendants failed to "demonstrate that any of the material facts alleged in the complaints are untrue."
"Further it has been held that the state may be called to account when it fails in its obligation to meet minimum constitutional standards for educational quality," Minardo says.