District Judge Margaret Marrinan ruled late Wednesday that the case against Gov. Mark Dayton, state Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius, St. Paul Public Schools and three other districts did not show Minnesota’s teachers union protections were directly connected to the academic achievement gap or students of color receiving ineffective teachers.

Marrinan’s ruling said the issues raised by lead plaintiff Tiffini Flynn Forslund and three other parents who filed the lawsuit should be handled by the Legislature, not the courts. Marrinan also found the lawsuit failed to establish a criteria for identifying an “ineffective teacher.”

Cassellius said she was pleased with the judge’s decision and reiterated that Minnesota has existing laws that help ensure teacher quality.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, Minnesota has some of the most hard working and talented teachers in the nation, and we are committed to ensuring every student has a dedicated and competent teacher,” Cassellius said.

Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, said she hoped the ruling would allow a renewed focus on recruiting more educators of color and helping struggling students.

“We know we have gaps and we know we have work to do,” Specht said. “I truly believe looking at layoff policy doesn’t get us to a better place.”

Ralia Polechronis, executive director of the national Partnership for Educational Justice, which supported the lawsuit, said the case was a first for the Minnesota courts and it was “no surprise that the battle for students’ rights will be hard fought.”

“The fact remains that far too many students in Minnesota, especially those from communities of color and low-income families, are not receiving the quality education to which they are entitled,” Polechronis said. “The plaintiff families are just as committed as ever to continue this fight until students’ rights are justly put above unfair job protections for chronically ineffective teachers.”

Forslund has said she filed her lawsuit because she believed Minnesota’s teachers union protections, which include seniority-based layoffs and a system for firing and disciplining teachers, was not working for students of color. Her lawsuit argued those rules made it too hard to fire bad teachers and resulted in low-performing schools that violated students’ constitutional right to a “uniform and thorough education.”

Republican lawmakers have tried to overhaul the teachers union protections targeted in Forslund’s lawsuit, but have come up against opposition from Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party members.

The Legislature passed a bill in 2012 to eliminate seniority as the primary factor for teacher staffing decisions, but Dayton vetoed it. The governor and his fellow DFLers have said Minnesota’s teacher evaluation and training system was the best way to measure educators’ performance and remove ineffective teachers.

Minnesota isn’t the only state to see a challenge to teachers union laws, similar cases have been brought in New York and California. In August, a California judge upheld the state teachers union laws, and the New York case is awaiting a decision about whether it can move forward.