Minnesota Court of Appeals dismisses teacher-tenure lawsuit

Jan 22, 2019

Star Tribune, Erin Golden

The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit arguing that state laws make it too hard to get rid of bad teachers and threaten students’ right to an adequate education.

The ruling in the case of Forslund v. Minnesota comes nearly three years after a group of parents from Minneapolis, St. Paul, Eagan and Duluth sued the state. They contended that laws related to teacher contracts, tenure and dismissal protected ineffective teachers and sometimes resulted in more qualified teachers being let go. The lawsuit suggested that those laws violated the constitution because they left some students with bad teachers, depriving them of the adequate education they are entitled to under state law.