The Second District Court of Appeal [official website] for the state of California upheld [opinion, PDF] the state’s teacher tenure law on Thursday, overturning a lower court’s 2014 decision [opinion, PDF]. Those opposing the law claimed that providing teachers strong job security after 18 months affected students’ fundamental right to education. The appeals court determined that their judicial responsibility was simply to determine whether the statue is constitutional, and said that the evidence provided did not show that the challenged statute inevitability caused a negative impact on students’ right to education. The plaintiffs will appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court of California.

In recent years legislation surrounding education and teachers has generated controversy in the US. Earlier this week, an education reform group challenged [JURIST report] a Minnesota law governing teacher tenure, claiming it resulted in poor educators. In August 2014 education advocacy groups in New York challenged the state’s teacher tenure laws [JURIST report], claiming that laws protecting teacher employment violate the civil rights of children to a quality education. In June 2014 a judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that the California’s system for tenure and seniority for public school teachers is unconstitutional [JURIST report]. In March 2014, the Supreme Court of Kansas held that the state’s legislature violated the Kansas constitution when it underfunded K-12 public education [JURIST report] during the 2009 through 2012 school years.