An earthquake struck California this month. This week, the aftershocks finally hit New York.
We’re talking about Vergara v. California, the case where a judge ruled that tenure protections for teachers shortchange children of an education — especially poor and racial minorities.
It “shocks the conscience,” he said, sending tremors through the educational establishment.
The Empire State is now feeling them, too. This week, a new parents group called Partnership for Educational Justice, headed by former TV news anchor Campbell Brown, teamed up with some top-flight legal talent.
They announced plans to back six New York students who plan to file a Vergara-like suit based on our constitution’s promise of a “sound basic education.”
Now, we would prefer reform to come from legislators rather than litigants.
But looking at Albany’s recent actions — watering down teacher evaluations and killing a tuition tax credit — that’s clearly not happening on its own.
Brown says her suit may be the prod Albany needs to get its act together and stop treating our public-school system as a jobs program.
It’s about time.
Because all this suit seeks is for a court to confirm what everyone already knows: When you make it all but impossible to fire bad teachers, you can’t be surprised when scores show the children aren’t learning.