Controversial means to a worthy end

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Leaders of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) are under fire from conservative groups for a provision in the district's new teachers contract that protects educators of color from seniority-based layoffs. Months after the contract was settled, ending a 14-day teachers strike, the provision is being criticized as unjust and unconstitutional racial discrimination against white teachers.

Ultimately, courts will decide whether critics' concern has constitutional merit. But race-based employment policies are always an invitation to controversy. Still, the goal of the negotiated provision remains worthy — to do more to recruit and retain educators of color in a district whose pupil population is more than 60% students of color.

Achieving and preserving racial diversity in the teaching corps should be one of the factors considered in decisions about recruiting and retaining MPS staff. But race should not be the sole basis for working around seniority-only rules governing layoffs.

The contract deal struck back in March moves MPS away from longstanding "last-in, first-out" (LIFO) layoff practices as a way to retain "members of populations underrepresented among licensed teachers." The Star Tribune Editorial Board has long favored eliminating seniority-only methods of determining which teachers are first to go when districts must lay off staff. The board has argued that under the "antiquated" LIFO system "school administrators find it impossible to retain talented, effective educators who are more recent hires."

In 2017, Minnesota legislators wisely dropped the statewide LIFO provision. That method of conducting teacher layoffs is no longer written into state statute as the default for districts and union leaders who don't reach agreement on a layoff policy. Minneapolis is one of the first districts to take advantage of the opportunity to move beyond seniority-only retention policy.

Similarly, the Editorial Board has long supported efforts to make teaching staff more diverse. Research has shown that all students (and especially kids of color) benefit from having teachers of various backgrounds, racial and otherwise. Learning from a teacher of color can lead to higher academic performance, better attendance and higher graduation rates among students in that demographic, according to a study by the nonprofit Learning Policy Institute.

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) encourages districts to do a better job of recruiting and retaining teachers of color. The department highlights three particular actions — Grow Your Own practices, teacher mentoring programs and educator career pathways — to diversify and support the educator workforce.

And just last year, Gov. Tim Walz and the Legislature tripled the existing K-12 spending on teacher-of-color recruitment and retention to about $13 million annually.

Moving beyond LIFO is, or should be, about more than race, however. Former MPS superintendent Bernadeia Johnson told an editorial writer that the district and teacher union have negotiated "carve-outs" to retain teachers of various kinds during layoffs. The agreed-to protections include Montessori, International Baccalaureate and other specialty educators. Johnson added that she pushed for teacher evaluations so that school leaders would have a metric by which to retain the most effective teachers — including the best teachers of color.

MPS faces a lawsuit over its new contract provision. This week, the conservative Judicial Watch group filed suit asking the court to declare such "racial and ethnic preference" provisions — and the use of taxpayer dollars to implement them — illegal.

Minneapolis Federation of Teachers union leaders continue to defend the contract provision. And district leaders have refused to comment other than to release a statement confirming that they agreed to contract language to "remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination." Such a remedial focus would likely be the strongest legal defense for the new policy.

While the outcome of the suit can't be known, the basic goal of the adopted contract language remains worthy. MSP, along with other Minnesota districts, should continue to work on strategies to diversify and strengthen their teaching staffs to better serve state students and families.