Dive Brief:

• Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu dealt California's teachers' unions a major blow, ruling on Tuesday that teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional. 
• According to the ruling, the laws disproportionately have a negative impact on poor and minority students
• The suit, Vergara v. California, claimed the state's teacher tenure laws made firing poor-performing teachers impossible, and these teachers were overwhelmingly placed in lower-income schools.

Dive Insight:

This may well be the beginning of a long list of similar legal battles in other states — and it wouldn't be entirely surprising if the California ruling itself is appealed to a higher court. While the opposing argument is that the teacher tenure laws offer protection from school administrators unfairly firing faculty and that the majority of the state's teachers are actually good. Still, if the laws are also making it possible for poor teachers to remain in place, this move could also provide an opportunity to create better regulations.