Lawsuit Challenges Teacher Tenure

NEW YORK (AP) — An education advocacy group has filed a lawsuit arguing that New York's teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional because they violate the state Constitution's guarantee of a "sound basic education" by making it difficult to fire bad teachers.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in State Supreme Court on Staten Island against city and state education officials. The plaintiffs are 11 students whose parents belong to the New York City Parents Union.

A message seeking from comment from the city's Education Department was not immediately answered.

Dozens of states have moved in recent years to weaken or throw out their seniority policies.

Last month, a judge ruled that California's tenure protections for public school teachers were unconstitutional after nine students sued the state saying tenure and seniority policies made it virtually impossible to fire bad teachers.