Teachers: “If unions treat their members like this..”

With school districts facing an additional $225 million in budget cuts, the State Board of Education (SBE) has granted local school districts more leeway in moving funds between budgets (See: news article).

It didn’t take teachers long to see that NCAE’s strategy of protecting both jobs and keeping down class size isn’t economically feasible and doesn’t help school districts. Unfortunately, the teachers union’s way of dealing with the problem — “last hired, first fired” — is almost as harmful as the problem it seeks to correct.  Too often “last hired, first fired” gets rid of a school district’s best young talent and destroys the principle of merit, all at the same time.

Last week Flypaper, the very good blog of the Fordham Foundation, had a piece on the many downsides associated with “last hired, first fired” policies. You’d think in a budget crunch institutions would want to protect your best assets. However, the fact is, unions value teacher seniority over teacher quality.  Maybe that’s why you don’t expect to find many unions to be filled with many dyed-in-the-wool young teachers.