Wednesday, February 24, 2010

LA SCHOOL DISTRICT, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SUED OVER TEACHER LAYOFFS

    By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer

    Wednesday, February 24, 2010 Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- Civil rights groups sued the Los Angeles Unified School District and the state on Wednesday, claiming thousands of teacher layoffs will deprive inner-city children of their right to an education.

    The budget-cutting dismissal of 2,100 permanent teachers last year disproportionately affected three schools in low-income and minority areas, violating the state constitutional right of students to an equal and proper education, according to the lawsuit.

    The district could eliminate another 5,000 jobs during the 2010-2011 school year. The 650,000-student district, the nation's second largest, has seen its funding slashed as the state struggles to close a massive budget deficit.

    Some inner-city middle and high schools in Los Angeles could lose up to 40 percent of their teachers in the upcoming cuts, according to an analysis by the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    Superintendent Ramon Cortines declined comment on the lawsuit, citing a district policy that prohibits speaking about pending litigation.

    The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and asks a judge to block any more budget-related layoffs at the three schools for the 2010-2011 school year. The lawsuit also wants to bar future layoffs that affect a higher percentage of teachers at those schools than at other district campuses.

    Effectively, that could require the state to rescind its funding cutbacks.

    "If the government can bail out bankers on Wall Street, they can bail out students in Watts and Pico Union," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one plaintiff in the case.

    While the layoffs are meant to be districtwide, state seniority rules mean the newest teachers go first. Many of them are in schools in tough, poverty-stricken neighborhoods that see a higher teacher turnover.

    School districts around the nation are suffering financial crunches. The National Education Association estimates that some 34,000 teaching jobs will be eliminated this year.

    Rosenbaum said he did not know whether other ACLU chapters planned to file similar lawsuits, but he called the layoffs "the civil rights issue of our day."

    "I don't think we should have to run into a courtroom so that students can learn from teachers that they love," he said.

    The lawsuit argues that more than half the permanent teaching positions in the Los Angeles district were lost at Gompers, Liechty and Markham middle schools. Transferred senior teachers and substitutes took over to fill some of the vacancies. But the civil rights groups claim that created a revolving-door situation that harms the learning process.

    Some classes have seen as many as 10 teachers in the first four months of the current school year, Rosenbaum said.

    "In my history class this year I had so many different teachers that it was a blur," said Sharail Teed, an eight-grader at Markham Middle School in Watts who is listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

    more stories

    Google News

    Students: Give Us More Teachers Or We'll Sue

    NBC Los Angeles -

    ... layoffs at their schools: they got a lawyer and are suing the school district. Teacher layoffs at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools have deprived ...

    LAUSD Teacher Layoffs Leads to Lawsuit From ACLU

    LAist (blog) - Lindsay William-Ross -

    Just one day after the Los Angeles Unified School District voted in favor of the plan to give control of struggling schools to non-profits, a lawsuit filed ...

    LAUSD gets slapped with civil rights lawsuit

    abc7.com -

    LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Civil rights attorneys filed a class action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District Wednesday, claiming the district ...

    Civil Rights Lawsuit Over Teacher Layoffs Filed Against LAUSD

    LA Weekly (blog) - Dennis Romero -

    24 2010 @ 1:13PM ​The ACLU and other attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of students at three inner-city, Los Angeles Unified School District middle schools ...

    LAUSD Sued Over Teacher Layoffs

    Huffington Post (blog) -

    LOS ANGELES — A civil rights group has sued the Los Angeles Unified School District and the state, claiming thousands of teacher layoffs deprive poor ...

    ACLU sues city school district and state over teacher layoffs

    Los Angeles Times (blog) - ‎

    The suit claims those students were denied their legal rights to an education and aims to prevent the Los Angeles Unified School District from laying off ...

     

    No comments: