• Athletics
  • Big Ed
  • Ed Tech
  • Educators
  • Elections
  • Federal Policy
  • Parents
  • Students
  • The Testing Industry

K-12 News Network's The Wire

K-12 News Network: People-Powered Public Education News

  • Budgets
  • Charter Schools
  • Federal Policy
  • School Districts
  • State Education Law
  • School Boards
You are here: Home / Los Angeles / The Vergera v. California Trial: More Double Standards From the 1%

The Vergera v. California Trial: More Double Standards From the 1%

March 16, 2014 by K12NN Site Admin

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

We know that two epicenters of the funding for profiteering from public schools are Silicon Valley and Wall Street. And in looking at some of the major players pushing privatization of public schools, such as the ones based in Northern California detailed in this Crooks and Liars report, I can see a pattern that emerges again and again among the entitled 1%. They have one standard of expectations regarding the quality of life for themselves and their families, and another one for “the rabble” — everyday people.

Do they think we don’t notice the hypocrisy laced with contempt?

Peter Thiel, billionaire libertarian, thinks kids should drop out of college to see if they’re holding a winning lottery ticket with a “20 under 20” startup, but he himself attended San Mateo High School (public), then Stanford University as an undergraduate and Stanford University Law School.

Some Silicon Valley executives think it’s fine for everybody else’s kids to be tethered to a computer screen (a “learning lab) from kindergarten onwards, but send their own kids to Waldorf schools where no artificial light is allowed, children play with natural materials, and the arts and music and artisanal crafts like knitting are encouraged. (Wouldn’t it be nice if all kids could experience the arts in the school day?)

This extends to the kinds of rules they should be subject to as opposed to rules for the rest of us.

Take for example Ted Schlein’s sexual harassment lawsuit and what it tells us about the importance of teacher tenure. Ted Schlein is a managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and is on the board of Students Matter, the organization suing to remove due process protections for teachers. One of the statutes that Students Matter wants to strike down is California Education code section 44944, which provides employees the ability to challenge unfair dismissals through an impartial arbitrator. And if there’s anyone who should understand the importance of arbitrating labor disputes, it’s Ted Schlein, who repeatedly attempted to arbitrate a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him and his firm.

Schlein was named as a defendant in a May 2012 sexual harassment lawsuit brought by former Kleiner Perkins employee Ellen Pao. Pao alleges that she informed Schlein personally that partner Ajit Nazre sexually harassed her, and senior partner Randy Kosimar gave her an inappropriately sexual book for Valentine’s Day. In addition to failing to take remedial action when Pao reported alleged sexual harassment, Schlein is alleged to have negatively reviewed Pao’s performance on the basis of interpersonal issues, which Pao claims is a proxy for the fallout she had with the partners who harassed her. Additionally, Pao claims that Schlein excluded her from company activities on the basis of her gender.

Throughout the ordeal with Pao, Schlein and other Kleiner Perkins management have attempted to solve the dispute through arbitration, repeatedly trying to keep the case out of the court. Arbitration for unfair dismissal cases benefits employers, allowing them to quickly and inexpensively settle unfair dismissal cases. Additionally, arbitration prevents public relations disasters arising out of alleged manager incompetence or gross misconduct, such as with the Pao lawsuit.

But if the plaintiffs Students Matter in Vergera v. California win, teachers won’t have the right to arbitration. It’s a process a venture capital firm seems to want to reserve for itself. Whether found in the right or wrong, shouldn’t teachers and administrators have access to the same process that big corporations like Kleiner Perkins do?

———————

I should add that an aide to anti-teacher Michelle Rhee is collecting signatures to try to achieve by ballot initiative means what they’re attempting to do using the courts through Vergera v. California. Read more here about the Decline to Sign effort to keep this bad ballot measure — with much of the same intent — off the November 2014 ballot by denying it signatures to qualify.

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Filed Under: Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, San Francisco, State Education Law Tagged With: Vergera v California

About K12NN Site Admin

I'm Cynthia Liu, Owner/Founder of K12 News Network. I'm the proud product of public schools through post-grad, the mom of a child in public schools, and the daughter of two teachers. Connect with me professionally on LinkedIn.

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required
Email Format

Buy a hybrid Facebook+ website today!

Federal Policy

Quick Education Voter’s Guide to the California CD34 Race, April 4, 2017

There are twenty-three candidates running to fill former Congressman Xavier Bacerra’s seat in Congressional District 34 in Southern California. (Bacerra is currently the state’s Attorney General, replacing Kamala Harris, who, after November 8, 2016, became our US Senator.) Election Day is Tuesday, April 4, 2017, 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. You can find your polling […]

Betsy DeVos, #NOTMYSDOE

Take the pledge to #resist and fight for public schools as a public good TODAY. DeVos had to have the assistance of Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented tie-breaking vote in order to win her confirmation. Two GOP Senators voted against, all Democratic Senators voted against. Yet all the other GOP Senators who received campaign donations […]

Next #DemDebate MUST Include K-12 Education Policy

The next #DemDebate is scheduled for the important primary state of Iowa on November 14, 2015. It’ll be broadcast by CBS in partnership with the Des Moines Register. Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig is leading the call for the families of 50 million students K-12 across the nation and the communities they live in to have […]

More Posts from this Category

K12NN on Blog Talk Radio

Online Politics Progressive Radio at Blog Talk Radio with MOMocrats on BlogTalkRadio

Categories

March 2014
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Jan   Apr »

Copyright © 2022 · The Wire Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in