Editorial: The Vergara Case Is about the Students  

Teachers are vital to a student’s education. Having a good educator or a mediocre one makes a great difference in a student’s learning process and in their future, both academically and on the job. Some parents are worried about their children’s failure to learn and lack of advancement in school, and about the administrators’ impotence to address their concerns.

We believe that most teachers are committed to their career and to helping children learn. However, there are others who do not create an ideal environment for learning, or who prefer to put on a video for students to watch while they mind their own things. Stories like these abound.

We are even more worried about inept teachers being transferred to schools attended by low-income and minority populations. The students who already find the most obstacles stacked against them turn out to be the most harmed. Educators deserve support to either get better at their job or change careers to avoid costing school districts a fortune.

From all this stems the Vergara Case. Its ruling is currently being appealed after a judge determined that the current laws governing teachers’ tenures and cases of dismissals and layoffs due to necessary personnel cuts are unconstitutional.

It is unfortunate that a judge had to intervene to settle an educational-labor dispute, but several reasonable searches for solutions made by the Legislature – which attempted to reach a compromise between protecting teachers’ jobs and the interests of parents who want quality educators for their children regardless of their origin – have failed repeatedly.

It is true that this lawsuit is being funded by millionaires aiming to make changes to the public school system, and that the quality of teachers is not the only factor to blame for teaching and learning difficulties. However, in this case, this argument only serves to defend the unacceptable present conditions that frustrate parents.

Teachers perform an essential task that deserves recognition. Their presence is so crucial that a teacher’s failure to accomplish their task cannot be overlooked because the future of a student may be at stake.

We hope that, at the end of the day, Vergara ends up helping create a new balance among the interests of everyone involved that effectively responds to the concerns of parents who want their children to receive quality public education.