Students Matter

	Students Matter
	Basic facts
Location:	Menlo Park, California
Type:	501(c)(3)
Top official:	David F. Welch
Founder(s):	David F. Welch
Year founded:	2011
Website:	Official website

Students Matter is a 501(c)(3) education reform organization based in Menlo Park, California and founded by entrepreneur David F. Welch. The organization emerged to support the families of nine California students in their lawsuit against the state of California. The ongoing lawsuit, Vergara v. California, challenges teacher retention laws that were seen by these families as detrimental to academic performance.^[1]

In July 2015, Students Matter filed another lawsuit, Doe v. Antioch. The lawsuit challenges the use of teacher contracts that exclude standardized test scores as factors in teacher evaluations. Students Matter argues that the contracts violate California's 1971 Stull Act.^[2]

Mission[edit]

According to the organization's website, Students Matter "promotes access to quality public education through impact litigation, communications and advocacy. Students Matter fights for education equality in the court of law and in the court of public opinion, where students’ rights and voices matter most."^[3]

Work[edit]

Students Matter originally formed in 2011 to support the families of nine California students in their lawsuit against the state of California. The ongoing lawsuit, Vergara v. California, challenges teacher retention laws that were seen by these families as detrimental to academic performance. The case is likely to advance to the United States Supreme Court due to appeals by state officials.^[1]^[3]

In 2015, Students Matter filed another lawsuit, Doe v. Antioch, which challenges teacher contracts that exclude standardized test scores as factors in teacher evaluations.^[2]

Vergara v. California[edit]

Students Matter's website explains arguments presented in Vergara v. California, which went to trial on January 27, 2014:

“

Californians shouldn’t have to choose: we can create an education system that gives every child a passionate, motivating and effective teacher and gives effective teachers the respect and rewarding careers they deserve. We believe every child, everywhere, deserves great teachers, and so does the California Supreme Court and the California Constitution. The California Supreme Court has long recognized that equal opportunity to access quality education is every child’s fundamental constitutional right.

With the help of Students Matter, nine California public school children filed the statewide lawsuit Vergara v. California against the State of California in May 2012 to strike down the laws handcuffing schools from doing what’s best for kids when it comes to teachers.

We think it’s simple: reward and retain passionate, motivating, effective teachers and hold those accountable who are failing our children. By striking down the following laws, Vergara v. California will create an opportunity for lawmakers, teachers, administrators and community leaders to design a system that’s good for teachers and students. Because when it comes to educating our kids, there should only be winners.

Permanent Employment Statute: The permanent employment law forces administrators to either grant or deny permanent employment to teachers after only 18 months—before new teachers even complete their beginner teacher programs and before administrators are able to assess whether a teacher will be effective long-term.
Dismissal Statutes: The process for dismissing a single ineffective teacher involves a borderline infinite number of steps, requires years of documentation, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and still, rarely ever works. In the past 10 years in the entire state of California, only 91 teachers have been dismissed, and the vast majority of those dismissals were for egregious conduct. Only 19 dismissals were based, in whole or in part, on unsatisfactory performance.
“Last-In, First-Out” Layoff Statute: The LIFO law reduces teachers to faceless seniority numbers. The LIFO law forces administrators to let go of passionate and motivating newer teachers and keep ineffective teachers instead, just because they have seniority.^[4]

”

—Student's Matter's website, (2014)

^[5]

In May 2013, the state’s two largest teachers unions, the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers, intervened in the case to defend these statutes alongside the State.

Los Angeles Superior Court[edit]

On June 10, 2014, Los Angeles Superior Court judge Rolf Michael Treu determined that state laws dealing with teacher tenure and firing were unconstitutional because they "disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students." Following Treu's ruling, Students Matter founder David Welch stated that he would be willing to finance similar lawsuits in other states.^[6]

California Court of Appeals[edit]

In April 2016, the California Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's ruling on the basis that teacher protection laws were not the cause of poor education. Instead, the ruling placed responsibility for education quality with school administrators, who have authority over teaching assignments. The ruling stated:^[7]

“

We reverse the trial court’s decision. Plaintiffs failed to establish that the challenged statutes violate equal protection, primarily because they did not show that the statutes inevitably cause a certain group of students to receive an education inferior to the education received by other students. Although the statutes may lead to the hiring and retention of more ineffective teachers than a hypothetical alternative system would, the statutes do not address the assignment of teachers; instead, administrators—not the statutes—ultimately determine where teachers within a district are assigned to teach. Critically, plaintiffs failed to show that the statutes themselves make any certain group of students more likely to be taught by ineffective teachers than any other group of students.^[7]^[4]

”

Students Matter will appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court.^[7]

Doe v. Antioch[edit]

In July 2015, Students Matter filed another lawsuit, Doe v. Antioch, to challenge 13 California school districts that the group claims violate California's 1971 Stull Act. Students Matter claims that the school districts have negotiated teacher contracts without the inclusion of standardized test scores in teacher evaluations, which is required under the Stull Act.^[8]

In December 2015, Students Matter reported that 10 of the 13 school districts had already initiated negotiations with teacher unions in order to move toward compliance with the Stull Act.^[9]

Leadership[edit]

The following individuals hold leadership positions with Students Matter:^[10]^[11]^[12]

David F. Welch, Founder and board chair
Ben Austin, Policy and advocacy director
David Stanley, Major gifts fundraising lead

Advisory board[edit]

Maria Casillas, Chief of school, family and parent/community services for the Los Angeles Unified School District
Dr. John Deasy, Superintendent-in-residence at The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems
Becky Morgan, President of the Morgan Family Foundation
Bruce Reed, Former president of The Broad Foundation
Arthur Rock, Venture capitalist
Ted Schlein, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Finances[edit]

Students Matter is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Its 501(c) designation refers to a section of the U.S. federal income tax code concerning charitable, religious, and educational organizations.^[13] Section 501(c) of the U.S. tax code has 29 sections that list specific conditions particular organizations must meet in order to be considered tax-exempt under the section. Organizations that have been granted 501(c)(3) status by the Internal Revenue Service are exempt from federal income tax.^[14] This exemption requires that any political activity by the charitable organization be nonpartisan in nature.^[15]The following table displays annual revenue and expenditure totals for Students Matter:

Annual revenue and expenses for Students Matter, 2012-2014^[16]
Tax Year	Total Revenue	Total Expenses
2014	$6,441,741	$5,510,409
2013	$2,752,824	$6,760,604
2012	$1,642,221	$2,021,377

Recent news[edit]

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Students + Matter + California"

Students Matter News Feed

External links[edit]

Suggest a link

Footnotes[edit]

[Home-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Students Matter, "Home," accessed March 25, 2014

[Doe-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Huffington Post, "Group created by Silicon Valley millionaire targets teacher evaluations in California," July 21, 2015

[About-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Students Matter, "About us," accessed June 27, 2016

[quotedisclaimer-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[5] Students Matter, "Vergara V. California Case Summary," accessed March 25, 2014

[6] The New York Times, "California Teacher Tenure Laws Ruled Unconstitutional," June 10, 2014

[K-7] 7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 89.3 KPCC, "Vergara v California: Ruling that would have ended state's teacher tenure rejected on appeal," April 14, 2016

[8] EdSource, "Students Matter sues districts over teacher evaluations," July 16, 2015

[9] California Political Review, "School districts in Doe v. Antioch teacher evaluation lawsuit refuse to comply with California law," December 17, 2015

[10] Students Matter, "Advisory board," accessed June 27, 2016

[11] Students Matter, "Students Matter staff," accessed June 27, 2016

[12] Students Matter, "Founder," accessed June 27, 2016

[13] Internal Revenue Service, "Exempt Purposes - Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)," accessed January 13, 2014

[lifecycle-14] Internal Revenue Service, "Life Cycle of a Public Charity/Private Foundation," accessed July 10, 2015

[15] Internal Revenue Service, "Exemption Requirements - 501(c)(3) Organizations," accessed January 13, 2014

[16] GuideStar, "The Students First Foundation," accessed June 27, 2016

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