Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.

Tomorrow, the Sacramento-based school reform advocacy group Ed Voice will have a full-page ad (seen on the left, click to enlarge) in the LA Times calling on the state legislature and Governor Jerry Brown to oppose AB 5. The Felipe Fuentes-sponsored bill would make all teacher evaluations subject to collective-bargaining agreements.

A number of other ed reform groups are strongly opposed to the measure, including California Democrats for Education Reform, Alliance for a Better Community and Educators 4 Excellence.

Ed Voice was instrumental in bringing about the Doe v. Deasy lawsuit, arguing that LAUSD was failing to abide by the Stull Act, which mandates that teachers be evaluated based on a number of objective criteria, including pupil progress. A judge recently ordered the district and the unions to come up with new evaluations that satisfy the 1971 law.

I spoke with Superintendent Deasy last week about a number of topics, including AB 5, of which he had this to say:

Is it disappointing that the [Stull] Act, even though it’s kind of a crappy act, has a very strong amendment to it in 1999, that says that certain achievements should be part of it, and up until now we’ve never used it, now we’re planning on using it and now we’re just gonna get rid of that [by passing AB 5]? Yeah, it’s really disappointing.

 

Is it odd to me that this happens in the middle of once this lawsuit pops up? I think I find the timing unusual.