Bhavini Bhakta loved her union—until she got to know it. As a fifth-grade teacher in southern California's Monrovia Unified School District, she put her trust in her local chapter. But after Bhakta's principal had to fire and rehire her six years in a row because of a nonsensical seniority law, she eventually learned that her state-level union was to blame: They jealously guarded the last-in, first-out rule that had forced her district to pink-slip her year after year. Bhakta, all of 35, has since changed districts and become a vice principal; back in Monrovia, between her consecutive firings, she was voted her school's teacher of the year.
Three years ago, she testified in Vergara v. California, a civil rights case alleging the tenure rule that led to her dismissals unfairly disadvantaged students in the low-income districts where engaged and service-minded young teachers tend to start their careers. A lower court ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, but the decision was overturned by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Shortly after, a new case related to the union dollars that support the tenure rules cropped up—this one, Bain v. CTA (California Teachers Association), lists Bhakta among its plaintiffs. Seeking a new way in the aftermath of Vergara to redress her union's unfairness, she embraced Bain's arguments. It was as though they peered into my head and made a case out of it, she told me in a downtown Washington, D.C. coffee shop last week.
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