The issue didn't die when Proposition 74 was defeated, however. There has been an unending debate about the value and effects of tenure, several bills to weaken tenure laws, and one big lawsuit: the Vergara complaint, which claimed that teacher-protection laws unconstitutionally deprived California students of a decent education. The assertion was off base, and the lawsuit was rejected on appeal last year. But the Vergara plaintiffs' critique of the system was valid: The laws go too far in placing the right of teachers to job protections over the right of students to reasonably good teachers. Even if they're not unconstitutional, the laws are bad policy. But the majority of legislators can't seem to muster the moxie to do what they clearly know is in the students' best interests, not with so much CTA campaign money floating around Sacramento.