Three years ago, I founded Students Matter, a nonprofit education organization, to ensure that our children get a passionate teacher in every classroom. We chose to utilize impact litigation to drive sorely needed changes in our public school system – and to shake up the political system that has let American schools, once the envy of the world, decline so far and so fast.
The trial, estimated to last 30 days, for our first case, Vergara v. California, is scheduled to begin Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The ultimate outcome of the case could change the course of public education in California and, possibly, in the nation.
The mission of Students Matter is rooted in three of my core beliefs: the essential value of a quality public education, the belief that every child, everywhere, deserves a quality education, and the almost-limitless capacity of innovation to power progress and improve our society.
I've come to these beliefs through significant personal experience.
First, I am a product of public schools. Growing up in Maryland, my six siblings and I attended public schools, and my undergraduate degree is from the University of Delaware. In these public classrooms, I was taught by passionate, motivating teachers who cared deeply about their subjects and about the success of their students. For me, their commitment has paid off many times over, powering my accomplishments as an engineer and an entrepreneur. If not for these teachers, I would not be where I am today, and I firmly believe all children deserve the same opportunity to learn and to achieve.
I am also a product of Silicon Valley. During my decades in our nation's innovation capital, I have witnessed over and over again the transformative force of creativity to turn failing systems around.
As I turned my attention more than 10 years ago to education reform, my background drew me, initially, to charter schools. In charters, I saw a genuine confidence in public schooling, mixed with a willingness to take the risks necessary for progress. Unburdened by particular state laws that handcuff traditional public schools, successful charters, like KIPP, Green Dot Schools and Texas' Apollo program, give gifted teachers and administrators the freedom to reimagine schooling, learn from their missteps, and ultimately come up with better ways of educating kids, all while maintaining the accountability necessary to ensure students' needs remain the focus.
I initially thought traditional school districts in California would learn from charters, allowing charters to innovate with more flexibility, then integrating the most successful, scalable and sustainable programs and practices into their own schools.
Unfortunately, that has not happened. The vast majority of our public schools remain trapped in an outdated and stagnant education system that's burdensome, inhibitive and clearly not working. The consequences for our kids are devastating.
The most obvious example of the system's dysfunction, and the first challenge Students Matter is taking on, is California's system for hiring and retaining a highly effective and motivating teaching force.
Despite the vast abundance of research and widespread real-world proof that passionate, dedicated teachers are crucial to an effective education, state laws in California handcuff school districts from making sure there's a great teacher in every classroom. In fact, the laws practically guarantee that ineffective teachers will get stuck in front of kids year after year.
Across the state, public school administrators are forced, by law, to grant permanent employment status to new teachers after only 16 months, before they even complete their beginner teacher training program and way before administrators can assess whether or not a teacher will be effective long-term.
Then, because of the elaborate dismissal procedures for teachers with permanent status, administrators cannot fire even the most egregiously ineffective teachers without navigating an expensive and time-consuming bureaucratic maze. One attempt at dismissal often costs school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars and takes years upon years of hearings and appeals. The dismissal procedures go so far beyond due process and protecting teachers from arbitrary firing (protections all public employees in California should and do have) that they make it impossible to protect students from ineffective teachers.
Perhaps the piece of the puzzle that makes the least sense is the “last-in, first-out” layoff law, which forces school districts to conduct layoffs based solely on teacher seniority. This law forces schools to dismiss passionate, effective teachers and keep some apathetic, ineffective teachers, just because they have seniority.
When I learned this was the way California schools must hire, retain and let go of their most valuable assets – their talented teachers, the core of their school community – I was shocked.
Common sense, reasonable changes to foster and value excellence in the classroom would make a huge difference in kids' lives and put our education system back on the right track.
Thus, Students Matter was born.
And the nine bravest kids I have ever met – Kate, Brandon, Julia, Raylene, Elizabeth, Beatriz, Herschel, Daniella and Clara Grace – filed Vergara v. California in May 2012, seeking to strike down the statewide permanent-employment, dismissal and layoff laws taking away their constitutional right to equality of education.
We've hired an all-star legal team to bring the case to court, including the attorneys Theodore B. Olson and Theodore J. Boutrous, who successfully argued the federal case against Proposition 8, restoring marriage equality to California.
The goal of Students Matter's first lawsuit is simple: create an opportunity for California's bold and innovative leaders to design a new system that rewards and encourages excellent teachers and holds those accountable who are failing our students.
And if we can build a new world-class education system anywhere, it's in California, where we believe everyone, no matter where you're from, deserves an equal opportunity to succeed, and where we have proven time and time again that we can come together to lead the nation on common sense reform.
Innovation is the process of disruption and iteration. A win for the plaintiffs in Vergara v. California will break down the barriers preventing our visionary education leaders from implementing fresh, new ideas to foster great teaching and elevate student learning. The path to a perfect system may be long and arduous, but we have a responsibility to the next generation to start down that path today.
We know winning this lawsuit won't solve all of the challenges facing our public schools, but we also know students learn more with effective teachers, so we owe it to them to make sure there's an effective teacher in every classroom in the state.
I learned from my schoolteachers and from my years in Silicon Valley that change always involves risk, and risk is sometimes scary. But there's nothing more important to our collective future than the education of our children – and there's no one more worth the risk.
David F. Welch is co-founder and president, Infinera Corp., and founder, Students Matter, sponsor of Vergara v. California.
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