Professor Bill Koski weighs in on an ongoing lawsuit that alleges tenure laws protect ineffective teachers and harm students for The San Francisco Chronicle.

The fate of nearly a century of job-security protections for California teachers is in the hands of a state appellate court, which is preparing to review a judge’s bombshell ruling that found tenure and seniority laws protect incompetent instructors, serve no educational purpose and, in particular, discriminate against poor and minority students.

The state and teachers unions have launched a frontal attack on the June 2014 ruling, arguing that neither the judge nor the nine student plaintiffs in the well-funded suit presented any evidence that the laws have harmed students or violated their constitutional rights.

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”The findings of fact are extremely thin for making a determination of unconstitutionality,” Stanford Law Professor Bill Koski, who teaches education law and policy, said Thursday. Usually, he said, a court that strikes down an education law – like the property-tax-based school finance system overturned by the California Supreme Court in 1971 – will include detailed findings on how the law works, what harm it causes and how it has affected students throughout the state.