Amid enrollment and funding reductions in the crime-ravaged region, Minneapolis Public Schools plan to lay off white teachers before any teachers of color under a new union agreement reached this past spring.
The agreement to end a two-week teacher strike exempts teachers from “underrepresented” populations from seniority-based layoffs, and it goes into effect in spring 2023.
MPS had a last-in, first-out policy that led to 50 non-white teachers losing their jobs this fall, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers fought against that policy, and now non-white teachers who were most recently hired will be retained in lieu of white teachers with more seniority, ABC News-4 reported Monday.
“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,” the agreement requires.
