Corn

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Gerald Corn, a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and plaintiff Junnie Verceles, a former LAUSD teacher, sued the State of California and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) (collectively, defendants), seeking an order declaring unconstitutional various provisions of the Education Code regarding discipline and dismissal of teachers. Defendants demurred to the operative complaint on several grounds, including that LAUSD, not defendants, caused the alleged harm, and the challenged statutes are constitutional as a matter of law. The trial court sustained the demurrer without leave to amend, ruling in part that plaintiffs’ facial and as- applied constitutional challenges failed to state facts sufficient to state a cause of action. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the judgment of dismissal.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. California’s education system

“The California Constitution requires ‘[t]he Legislature [to] provide for a system of common schools.’ (Cal. Const., art. IX, § 5.) Pursuant to this command, the state is obligated to provide a free public education. (Los Angeles Unified School…