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QOD: Boies Leads NYS Tenure Fight; “Emblematic” of Fracture between Dems and Teacher Unions

August 4, 2014

Laura Waters

David Boies, the star trial lawyer who helped lead the legal charge that overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban, is becoming chairman of the Partnership for Educational Justice, a group that former CNN anchor Campbell Brown founded in part to pursue lawsuits challenging teacher tenure.

Mr. Boies, the son of two public schoolteachers, is a lifelong liberal who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore and prosecuted Microsoft in the Clinton Administration’s antitrust suit. In aligning himself with a cause that is bitterly opposed by teachers’ unions, he is emblematic of an increasingly fractured relationship between the Democrats and the teachers’ unions.

Laura Waters

1 Comment

kallikak, August 4, 2014 @ 2:44 pm Reply

From the Times:

“In a suit filed in New York last month, plaintiffs supported by Ms. Brown’s group argued that tenure laws make it too difficult to fire ineffective teachers and force principals to make personnel decisions based on seniority rather than performance. The suit argues that such laws disproportionately harm low-income and minority students.”

Okay, but the same laws apply in Scarsdale as they do in Rosedale.

Can't see how a similar suit would gain any traction in NJ given our new 'Eastern Airlines' (i.e., “earn your wings every day”) tenure rules.