The North Carolina Association of Educators along with six public school teachers filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the elimination of teacher tenure. The suit alleges that the General Assembly’s repeal of career status (tenure) violates teachers’ constitutional right to due process and breaks a contract with teachers who have already attained tenure, as well as probational teachers in the process of reaching tenure.

Teachers currently obtain career status after working in the same district for four years and passing a performance review by the local school board. Tenured teachers are employed on a continuous basis, rather than year-by-year, and can only be dismissed for specific reasons (of which there are 15). Tenure also guarantees teachers the right to know why they are being fired and the right to a hearing to contest dismissal. Tenure does not protect teachers from being fired.

A provision repealing career status was attached to the 2013 budget after the measure failed to pass as a policy bill.

Under the new system, all teachers will be placed on short-term contracts for periods of 1, 2, or 4 years beginning in 2018. In 2014, local school boards will grant four-year contracts and a $500 temporary raise to the top 25 percent of teachers in exchange for those teachers giving up tenure status. Those who do not take the contract offer will keep tenure protections until the 2018 phase out date.

NCAE press release:

The NCAE has more detailed information about the new teacher and school administrator contracts here.

Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), who championed the effort to eliminate tenure, argued that career status serves as an impediment to removing bad teachers from the classroom. As proof, Berger pointed to a Department of Public Instruction report that showed only 17 teachers had been dismissed in the 2011-12 school year. But this number is misleading. Because tenured teachers have the option of resigning voluntarily at multiple points in the dismissal process, the real number of tenured teachers who were fired in 2011-12 is significantly higher.

Via The Charlotte Observer:

The central fact: 11,791 teachers left their jobs that year, including 5,599 with tenure. Some tenured teachers left voluntarily, but DPI’s report shows that many were forced out. At several stages in the dismissal process, a tenured teacher can resign. The 17 “dismissed” teachers either went through the statutory hearing process to the bitter end, or never requested a hearing and were dismissed summarily. DPI’s 2012 data show that most teachers put in the dismissal crucible resign. 147 tenured teachers “resigned in lieu of termination” in 2012. And that figure also only tells part of the story.

Charlotte Observer – Dispelling 2 Republican myths about teacher tenure changes

Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mcklenburg) issued the following joint statement in response to news of the lawsuit:

“By filing another frivolous lawsuit, the union has made its blueprint clear: ‘if at first you don’t succeed at the polls, then sue, sue again.’ While union leaders are focused on succeeding in the courtroom, we’ll remain focused on our children succeeding in the classroom.”

The lawsuit is the second filed by the NCAE this month against education policies passed during the 2013 legislative session. Read more about the lawsuit challenging school vouchers here.

Read the full complaint:

Further reading:

WRAL – NCAE lawsuit challenges elimination of teacher tenure

News & Observer – Teachers to sue for tenure protections

News & Observer – Wake County school leaders weighing how to deal with loss of teacher tenure

News & Observer – In NC, teacher tenure doesn’t mean a guaranteed job