Does section 44944(e) of the California Education Act restrict teachers' hearing rights?

By differentially encouraging and discouraging teachers' hearing demands depending on the strength of the teacher's defense, section 44944(e) serves the legitimate and important goals of improving public education and conserving public resources. At least on its face, then, section 44944(e) broadly serves a legitimate state purpose and does not impose a generally prohibitive barrier on access to administrative review. Under the precedents reviewed above, the statute therefore does not per se constitute an impermissible burden on the exercise of teachers' hearing rights. In the next part of the analysis I discuss whether, under the general balancing analysis of Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (Mathews ), the statute nevertheless is so poorly tailored to its legitimate purpose that its public benefits are outweighed by the risk it creates of erroneous result.