By Eliza Shapiro | Capital New York

Campbell Brown’s lawsuit challenging teacher tenure and other union-backed protections is gaining a new plaintiff: a non-union public school teacher from Albany.

DeLaine Wilson, a 15-year veteran pre-school teacher at the North Albany Academy YMCA, said in an interview with Capital on Thursday that New York’s slate of teacher protections academically harmed students in upper grades at her school.

“We had honor roll students [at my school] and when it came to the Regents tests they weren’t able to pass them,” said Wilson, who has four children who attend public schools in Albany and was a member of the New York State United Teachers when previously she taught at a private school.

Adding a public school teacher—albeit a non-union one—to the lawsuit could prove to be a helpful move for Brown’s Partnership for Educational Justice, which is already engaged in a bitter battle with NYSUT and the city’s United Federation of Teachers, along with their affiliates, over tenure.

Wilson, who is joining the lawsuit along with her husband, Roderick Wilson, said she believes eliminating the current teacher tenure laws will “hold more teachers accountable.”

“Tenure makes them comfortable,” she said, addding she would try to convince unionized teachers that potentially eliminating tenure and other protections would help all teachers perform better.

Brown, a former CNN anchor, filed her suit challenging the constitutionality of teacher tenure, dismissal and seniority laws in July. The lawsuit is being handled pro bono by a team of lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis. The case was recently consolidated with a similar lawsuit and formal legal proceedings are unlikely to begin until at least December.

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