Defense Witness Concedes That LIFO Layoffs Disproportionately Affect Poor Schools

State Defendants and Intervenors called two witnesses, Mr. Ernest H. Tuttle III and Mr. Richard Barrera, to the stand today in the education equality trial, Vergara v. California.

Mr. Tuttle, a senior partner and president of Tuttle & McCloskey, a law firm in Fresno, California, testified about his representation of tenured teachers in dismissal hearings in the Fresno Unified School District.  On cross-examination, conducted by Plaintiffs’ lead co-counsel Marcellus A. McRae, Mr. Tuttle admitted that the discovery conducted during teacher dismissal actions is a “big waste of money.” He also conceded that settlement agreements, which Defendants and Intervenors sometimes tout as a “work around” to dismissal, often take as long as full dismissal proceedings because ineffective teachers are incentivized to wait until the last moment to settle, collecting their full paychecks in the meantime.

Following Mr. Tuttle’s testimony, Mr. Barrera, a San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) school board member, took the stand.  Mr. Barrera, who is also the Secretary-Treasurer and CEO of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, testified about SDUSD’s layoff practices and its efforts to close the achievement gap—which Mr. Barrera conceded remains one of the largest achievement gaps in California.  Although Mr. Barrera’s testimony focused on what the district did to help avoid layoffs, he admitted that layoffs are sometimes unavoidable and agreed that, in those circumstances, they must be conducted primarily on the basis of reverse seniority.

View Plaintiffs’ witness Dr. Arun Ramanathan’s presentation on student achievement gaps in California.

During cross-examination by Plaintiffs’ counsel Joshua Lipshutz, Mr. Barrera acknowledged that he has called the teacher layoff system “out of whack” because it forces the district to issue layoff notices before it knows what the final budget will be.  He also acknowledged telling the San Diego Union-Tribune: “Pink slipping disproportionately affects poorer schools absolutely.”