Tag Archives: Durham

Yesterday, Judge Hobgood made the injunction blocking the teacher tenure law permanent.
Durham schools officials celebrated the news Friday that a Wake County judge declared the effort in the General Assembly to end “career status” for North Carolina teachers unconstitutional.
Judge Robert Hobgood ordered a permanent injunction against the Republican-backed law that required school districts to offer 25 percent of teachers contracts and $500 bonuses to those who agreed to give up “career status” early, before 2018 when it would end for all teachers.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the N.C. Association of Educators (NCAE) and six teachers, challenging the law that would strip teachers with “career status” of certain rights such as the right to a hearing if they were dismissed. – Herald Sun 05/16/14

While I oppose the current rules governing teacher tenure which include tenure being granted automatically when at teacher hits the four-year mark of continuous employment in North Carolina, this ruling actually makes sense with regard to the NC Constitution as written. Perhaps the NCGA should look at a route which incentivizes teacher to apply for a merit system instead of trying to drop tenure entirely. This would avoid the kind of suit brought by the NCAE. A search of NClet.net brought up the last time NC looked at teacher tenure with a legislative research committee. That it was 1981.
Judge Hobgood is the same Judge in Wake County that had another teacher related injunction dealing with Opportunity Scholarships overturned:

@PeteKaliner Same judge who’s injunction on scholarships was overturned just made the tenure injunction permanent? Gee, not sketchy at all.

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) May 16, 2014 Continue reading →