“It should not be illegal for schools to try and keep great teachers during tough economic times.” As commonsensical as this sounds, an important new policy brief from The New Teacher Project (TNTP) reports that 14 states actually have laws on the books that force quality-blind layoffs.
Ohio is one of these states and we’ve seen firsthand how damaging this law is and how damaging it will likely be in coming months as the state grapples with cutting $8 billion from its next biennial budget.
Because state law in Ohio, dating back to 1941, requires that the last teacher in be the first one out, younger and less-expensive teachers must depart during times of layoffs. We wrote about the madness of this law in 2007 when Dayton’s “Teacher of the Year” was given the award with one hand and his layoff notice with the other. These sorts of quality blind layoffs now face districts across Ohio and other states as they face massive budget deficits.
The New Teacher Project reports that such archaic laws threaten 79,000 more teachers across the country who “would lose their jobs if budget cuts forces districts nationwide to reduce salary expenditures by 5 percent through seniority-based layoffs rather than seniority-neutral layoffs.” This means several thousand fewer teachers in Ohio being dismissed if there was a focus on teacher effectiveness rather than solely on seniority.
Senate Bill 5, currently being debated noisily across Ohio would require teacher layoffs to be based on merit rather than seniority. While the layoff language in the bill could be improved, it puts Ohio on a path similar to where Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New York, and Washington are heading. It is a change these states all need to make for, as TNTP notes, “Layoffs are always an option of last resort. But when they cannot be avoided, school districts and states should do everything possible to protect the highest-need students and most effective teachers…Teacher seniority should be a factor in layoffs – just not the only one. A teacher’s actual performance in the classroom should always matter most.”
States need to kill off once and for all “Last In/First Out” laws for teachers and with brutal funding cuts coming, now is the time to do it.
Will someone PLEASE explain to me why “older,experienced teacher=teacher who needs to go” seems to be the prevailing message of those against LIFO! I’ve taught for 25 years, I’m still working hard on being better every year, and I have helped scores of new teachers with materials, advice, and encouragement over the years. I’ve seen many newbies who quit before they have taught for even two or three years; without support from good, experienced teachers,we will lose more. I have had a continuing contract for years, but I still have to earn my students’ trust and respect with each new year. I learn about, adopt, and adapt to new technology as it becomes available, as do many of the “oldies.” I believe that framing the argument as old against new shows a lack of understanding of the dynamics of a balanced, cooperative faculty and the value that all levels of experience bring to a school that “works.”
Ed, I do not doubt your abilities as a teacher. I bet you are great, but for every good teacher like yourself there is a substandard educational hack that has bumbled along for 25 years providing no better value than an overpaid babysitter. It is a travesty that we shut out quality teachers due to arbitrary issues such as when they were hired. Education systems were built to serve the students, but have increasingly shifted to serving the needs of the adults that work within them.
This article argues that the quality of teachers should be a priority when considering layoffs rather than years of service.
Please re-read the column critically and remove your personal qualms of job security from the thought process required to absorb the data.
Can we not balance factors such as quality AND experience rather than assuming that time spent in a classroom automatically = teacher who needs to stay forever?
PUT THE SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT MAN!!!!!!
My child’s teacher was by far the most unqualified educator I have ever seen. She has been at the same school for over 22 years and has complaints from parents almost every year on her inability to engage her students, however, she is protected.
It took us almost 2 months to get my child into a better school.
If you would like to review schools I would check out yelp or http://www.preschoolpilot.com
As Steve Jobs used to say ‘Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.’