A tentative agreement between the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Public Schools would protect teachers who are members of a ‘underrepresented population’ from being laid off in order “to remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination.”
The agreement states, “if excessing a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the district shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population.”
In Minnesota, the overwhelming majority of teachers are white women.
Layoffs are already a controversial topic in union negotiations, as many contracts contain “last in, first out” (LIFO) provisions which base layoffs on years of service, rather than merit.
A 2011 poll in New York found voters overwhelmingly oppose LIFO. In 2014, California’s LIFO rules were struck down in Vergara v. California for having a disproportionately negative impact on poor and minority students.