AB753 is authored by Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, and would expand the scope of the tenure system to teachers working in small school districts, as well as certificated employees working in non-teaching positions. Employees of school districts and county offices of education with more than 250 average days of attendance would only have to be employed for two consecutive years and be re-employed for a third year to qualify for permanent employee status.

Preliminary analysis of the bill from the Appropriations Committee revealed this bill would have an effect on at least 17 county offices of education and 250 school districts in California.

The California Teachers Association wrote in support of the bill:

“Under the Education Code, permanent employees can only be terminated for just-cause or as part of a layoff. Unfortunately, several classes of certificated education employees have been inappropriately denied permanent status based on the need to create fiscal solvency or in anticipation that the need for services into the future was insecure; there are currently systems in place to appropriately reduce staffing if needed. AB753 will remedy this situation treating all certificated education employees with dignity, respect, and professionalism.”

However, the statute is technically unconstitutional based on the landmark Vergara decision by a California Superior Court.

“AB753 flew in the face of the Superior Court ruling in Vergara and defied all logic by seeking to expand the very system the court found to be unconstitutional and harmful to California’s students and teachers,” wrote Students Matter Policy Director Ben Austin in a press release. “We thank Committee Chair Jimmy Gomez and members of the Appropriations Committee for listening to the will of California voters and the state’s court system. This vote is a watershed moment for the California Assembly — standing up to the most powerful special interests and with the vast majority of California parents, children and educators who want ‘kids first’ change.”

A recent poll from USC Dornsife and L.A. Times demonstrate that Californians “take a dim view of teacher tenure” and many believe that “teachers receive tenure much too quickly.” Another poll from Teach Plus found that most teachers “highly value tenure but strongly support making tenure a more performance-based, professional benchmark.”

There’s also the evidence that the Legislature isn’t as wacky as it used to be since open primaries became the norm in 2012. In a U-T San Diego editorial, I looked at some theories as to why that might be:

“[There is] evidence that 2012’s elections — in which all Assembly and half the Senate seats were up for grabs — had the moderating effect that [open-primary proponent Abel] Maldonado hoped, specifically on majority Democrats. In 2013 and so far in 2014, the Legislature has not been the liberal self-caricature it often seemed over the past 15 years.

“This is backed by a study of voting patterns from 2011-2013 by USC professor Christian R. Grose. It showed significantly more moderate stands among Assembly Democrats and some signs that Senate Democrats have moderated as well.

“But are open primaries driving this development? Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, says there may be more moderate Democrats than before, but they’ll vote the union line when Senate and Assembly leaders apply pressure. Coupal also says Senate Democrats have been weakened by the scandals hanging over three members of their caucus. And he says Gov. Jerry Brown’s pragmatism and sensitivity to ‘job-killer’ bills may also inhibit lawmakers from acting on their normally liberal instincts.

“So it’s probably far too soon to decide whether Abel Maldonado will be a footnote or a key figure in state history.”

More consequential: Rift pitting Latinos vs. teachers

But for my money, there’s potentially much bigger news unfolding. That’s the possibility that the Vergara lawsuit over anti-Latino state education policies and the Tuck vs. Torlakson race for state superintendent of public education could finally make teacher unions and the Latino community the adversaries they should have been for years.

Who is best served by the state education status quo? Mostly white teachers who belong to the CTA and CFT. Who is worst served by the state education status quo? Mostly Latino students in poor communities.

If/when this dynamic comes to the fore, it would be far more potent than a change in election rules. The CTA/CFT are the Dems’ fiscal muscle. Latino voters are the Dems’ key voter base. If they get into it — and they should, they should — California will change in dramatic ways.

But one organization that has figured this out is the California ACLU. It has sued school districts — and won — over policies mandating that students pay for instructional materials that should be free. Why were students forced to pay? To free up funds for employee compensation.

The ACLU has also sued — and won — over teacher assignment/retention policies that concentrate the worst teachers at California’s most struggling schools, and that often lead to teachers at such schools instructing students in fields other than the ones they were trained in. Why would the establishment have such dubious policies? To preserve the jobs of teachers, even bad teachers and those who can’t find teaching jobs in their areas of expertise.

Court challenges work better than counting on Legislature

Perhaps encouraged by the efficacy of court challenges to the California education status quo — as opposed to failures to improve K-12 policies via the Legislature — a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur has launched an ambitious lawsuit. Seth Rosenblatt, a Harvard-educated member of the San Carlos school board, writes on the Ed Source education website that the fallout from Vergara v. California could be gigantic.

“The Vergara case is premised on the legal theory that the California Constitution’s guarantee of students’ equal opportunity to quality education is incompatible with current laws (specifically five statutes in the California Education Code related to permanent employment, dismissal procedures, and seniority-based layoffs) that do not allow local school districts to manage their teaching staffs based on quality and effectiveness. The plaintiffs claim that because effective teachers are so crucial to ensuring students’ academic success, ignoring teacher effectiveness is tantamount to not giving all students a quality education. They further argue that such harm is borne disproportionately among minority and low-income students. …

Without debating the arguments of the case itself (and my goal is not to create such a debate in this forum) and not being an attorney, I would not attempt to handicap the lawsuit’s chance of success. However, there is no doubt that there is much dissatisfaction among school districts, school board members, administrators, and even many teachers around the myriad of human resource rules contained in the Ed Code. It is difficult to argue that the way teachers are evaluated (or not evaluated), how dismissal notices are handled, and “last in first out” rules are compatible with building a public education system in a 21st century design. And certainly many communities have stories where such regulations have disproportionately negatively affected those schools and students with the greatest needs. The lawsuit has created interesting alliances – for example, although the Los Angeles Unified School District was originally a defendant in the case (it’s since been dropped), Superintendent John Deasy is expected to testify for the plaintiffs.”

Forcing a new paradigm on teacher hiring, evaluation

The Vergara case is scheduled to begin Jan. 27. Eventually, if Students Matter has its way, it could be transformative.

“Regardless of whether one is supportive or not of Vergara, the immediate implications of its potential success would be staggering, and it would completely make moot all of the current discussions around Sacramento on this topic. Relationships between local school districts and their bargaining units would be forever altered, and school districts and teachers would have to quickly find a new paradigm for hiring, evaluating, and firing staff. However, the folks at Students Matter are quick to point out that Vergara would not eliminate due process protections that currently exist in California Government Code for all public employees, including teachers.”

Go, Students Matter, go. If any status quo in California needs to be dynamited, it is the CTA-driven tyranny of our public schools.

Here’s more on David Welch, the Ph.D. tech entrepreneur with more than 160 patents who launched this reform effort.