By Solvejg Wastvedt | MPR News
“New licensing requirements for Minnesota teachers are set to take effect next summer after they were passed as part of the education budget last session.
The changes put more control in the hands of school districts and aim to address problems identified in a critical legislative audit last year. The audit called Minnesota’s current licensing system “broken,” citing confusing requirements and uneven standards for in- and out-of-state candidates.”
By Erin Hinrichs | MinnPost
“While debates over teacher licensure reforms, school funding and failed pseudo voucher bills dominated the education agenda at the Capitol this year, a pretty significant policy measure passed without much commotion: the “last in, first out” layoff policy, commonly known as LIFO, is no longer written into state statute as the default for districts and union leaders who can’t reach an agreement during negotiations on how layoffs should otherwise be handled.”
By The StarTribune Editorial Board
“As part of the state’s multibillion-dollar E-12 education package, Minnesota lawmakers approved two long-awaited and much-needed provisions governing teaching jobs. Under the new legislation, the state’s teacher licensing system was overhauled to make it more streamlined and less complicated. Overall, the changes create an easier, more sensible path to obtaining a license to teach in Minnesota.”
By Alejandra Matos | The Washington Post
“Nearly 200 teachers have quit their jobs in D.C. Public Schools since the school year began, forcing principals to scramble to cover their classes with substitutes and depriving many students of quality instruction in critical subjects.
The vacancies hit hardest in schools that already face numerous academic challenges, according to data The Washington Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.”
By Justin Zaremba | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
“As New Jersey schools draw up their annual budgets, some are finding that revenues aren’t enough to support all their needs. As a result, a few are contemplating or have approved laying off teachers and other staff for the 2017-2018 school year.
Here are some of the districts facing cuts, listed by those who are planning to lay off the fewest staff members to the districts that are facing the most severe cuts.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2017
Contact: Melody Meyer, melody@edjustice.org or 646.770.7061
“Public schools are here to educate our children, first and foremost,” said Wendy Soto, plaintiff and mother of two Newark Public School students. “Everyone knows that many New Jersey school districts are in a serious funding crisis. Politicians have not protected our children’s right to a quality public education, and parents like me have nowhere to turn. The quality-blind LIFO law makes a difficult situation even worse for students in struggling schools. Enough is enough. It’s time to end this ridiculous law.”
“New Jersey’s LIFO law forces school districts like Newark to retain ineffective teachers and, in fact, put them back in the classroom while cutting spending to other critical areas of public education. Students are constitutionally entitled to more than this,” said Kathleen Reilly, attorney with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, one of the firms representing the Newark parents pro bono. “These decisions – made to evade application of the LIFO law – harm children. The negative impact of LIFO is pervasive today in Newark public schools and these families deserve to have their case heard in court.”
Since at least 2012, NPS has avoided laying off effective teachers by paying millions of dollars per year to cover the salaries of ineffective – but more senior – teachers even when no school would agree to their placement in the school. This expensive work-around, which is costing the district $10 million dollars in 2016-17, diverts valuable resources from educational programming and other critical components of an adequate public education. Because NPS employs more than half of the state’s ineffective teachers, it also puts Newark students at significant risk of being assigned to an ineffective teacher.
After it was announced that New Jersey State education funding would remain essentially flat for the 2017-18 school year, NPS acknowledged a looming $30 million deficit because of rising costs. Facing similar budget gaps over the past three years, NPS administrators restricted hiring practices, forcing teachers previously without placement into schools without mutual consent from the teacher and the principal. Research shows that teacher quality is the most influential in-school factor when it comes to student learning. It also shows that student achievement improves when principals are allowed to hire school staff according to quality and fit, rather than restricted by seniority.
To learn more about the parent-led lawsuit to end LIFO in New Jersey, please go to edjustice.org/nj. All legal filings related to the lawsuit are available online here.
About Partnership for Educational Justice (PEJ)
Founded in 2014, Partnership for Educational Justice is a nonprofit organization pursuing impact litigation that empowers families and communities to advocate for great public schools through the courts. In addition to supporting teacher layoff litigation in New Jersey, PEJ is currently working with parents and students in New York and Minnesota in support of legal challenges to unjust teacher employment statutes in those states.
By Karen Rouse | WNYC
“At a Freehold, N.J., elementary school, more than 500 students share a vast, open space where bookshelves, whiteboards, storage cubbies and other pieces of furniture are the only boundaries between classrooms.
There are no walls because the building was originally designed in the 1970s to be a smaller Montessori school, Superintendent Rocco Tomazic explained during a recent tour. But now, it’s noisy and crowded, and the district doesn’t have the money to move each of the classes into traditional closed classrooms — the kind with walls, and a lot fewer distractions.”
By The Star Ledger Editorial Board
“The Newark parents who sued, arguing that forcing school districts to prioritize seniority over teacher talent hurts their kids, just lost their case in court. That’s a real blow to students, who don’t have a special interest union.”
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board
“The Newark parents who sued, arguing that forcing school districts to prioritize seniority over teacher talent hurts their kids, just lost their case in court. That’s a real blow to students, who don’t have a special interest union.
But make no mistake: this fight is far from over. Their families can appeal, of course, and while it may be a long shot to argue that the state constitution should decide this, the issue is in no way settled – because changing the policy itself is essential.”