Fury as Minneapolis teachers union says WHITE teachers laid off first regardless of seniority
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‘Racism in action’: Fury as Minneapolis teachers’ union negotiates clause requiring WHITE educators to be laid off first regardless of seniority – to make up for ‘past discriminations’
- The stipulation is part of a new agreement starting in spring 2023 between the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Public Schools
- Part of the agreement was an attempt to re-format how the school district hires and keeps teachers of color
- The new contract says that they may go outside the order to avoid layoffs to a teacher who is ‘a member of a population underrepresented’
- This prioritizing may apply to bring back teachers who were laid off should re-hires occur
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A new contract between public schools and the teachers’ union in the city of Minneapolis is causing outrage because it may see white teachers laid off at the expense of teachers of color.
The stipulation is part of a new agreement starting in spring 2023 between the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Public Schools ending a two-week long teachers’ strike.
Part of the agreement was an attempt to re-format how the school district hires and keeps teachers of color.
The new contract says that, while teachers subject to layoffs or relocations will typically done based off seniority, they may go outside the order to avoid doing that to a teacher who is ‘a member of a population underrepresented’.
This prioritizing may apply to bring back teachers who were laid off should re-hires occur.
A new contract between public schools and the teachers’ union in the city of Minneapolis is causing outrage because it may see white teachers laid off at the expense of teachers of color
The stipulation is part of a new agreement starting in spring 2023 between the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Public Schools ending a two-week long teachers’ strike
The contract states: ‘The District shall deprioritize the more senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population, in order to recall a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers’.
Both school district and teachers’ union leaders say this makes the city one of the only in the country that does what’s called ‘seniority-disrupting’.
The agreement could prove important very soon, given that the district is likely to cut jobs because of budget reductions due to lower enrollments, according to ABC News 4.
The new contract also calls for the development of ‘anti-bias anti-racist’ staff advisory councils.
They are supposed to focus, according to the contract, on: ‘reducing inequitable practices and behaviors in our learning places and spaces as well as supporting educators, specifically educators of color, in navigating and disrupting our district as a predominantly white institution’.
Some conservative activists were outrage, including public school reform activist Christopher Rufo.
He tweeted: ‘This is the inevitable endpoint of ‘equity”.
The 1776 Project Pac, a conservative political action committee, called the agreement: ‘Breathtakingly racist and outright unconstitutional’.
Mark J. Perry called it: ‘Racism in action’.
A spokesperson for the school district said: ‘To remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination, Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) mutually agreed to contract language that aims to support the recruitment and retention of teachers from underrepresented groups as compared to the labor market and to the community served by the school district’.