Los Angeles Teacher Layoff Plans

Jennifer Medina
"Teacher Layoff Plans in Los Angeles Pose Broad Implications"
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MARCH 4, 2011
URL: WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2011/03/05/US/05LAYOFFS.HTML?REF=EDUCATION
TOPIC: THE HEIGHTENED CONFLICT BETWEEN TEACHER LEAYOFFS, SENIORITY, BUDGET DEFICITS, AND TEACHERS’ UNIONS.

SUMMARY: In Los Angeles a court ruling ratified a settlement agreed to by plaintiffs and the school district, is being appealed by the teachers’ union.
Last spring, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups sued the school district on behalf of parents, saying that their children’s right to an education, guaranteed in the State Constitution, would be violated by the layoffs. Like most districts in the country, Los Angeles has long had an agreement with the union that layoffs are based primarily on seniority. Lawyers for the parents argued that the layoffs would disproportionately affect poor, black and Latino students, who are more likely to attend schools that are difficult to staff and have a high proportion of inexperienced teachers.
If the ruling is upheld for the seemingly inevitable layoffs this summer, Los Angeles, the second-largest district in the country, will be among the first to dismiss teachers using criteria other than seniority.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: GENERAL PUBLIC

KEY POINTS: In essence, the ruling put the rights of students above job protections.
RELEVANCE: As new teachers, we would benefit from being protected from layoffs based on seniority alone. On the other hand, with 30,000 teachers facing layoffs in California alone, will there be any jobs for us to apply?

Michelle Ree and education reform

Richard D. Kahlenberg
Still Waiting for Superwoman
What Michelle Rhee's fans don't get about education reform.
The Slate
February 21, 2011
URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2285650

Topic: Controvertial Superintendent Michelle Ree

Summary: Rhee's message about education reform is very seductive because it's simple and optimistic. Childhood poverty and economic school segregation, in Rhee's world, are just "excuses" for teacher failure. If we could just get the unions to agree to stop protecting bad teachers and allow great teachers to be paid more, she says, we could make all the difference in education.
Intended audience: General Public
Key point: Most education researchers, recognize that Rhee's simple vision of heroic teachers saving American education is a fantasy, and that her dramatic, often authoritarian, style is ill-suited for education. Michelle Rhee's war on teachers' unions was a sideshow that distracted from the more important effort to give more low-income students a chance to attend middle-class public schools.
Relevance: Discussion on both political and practical fallout of current school reform efforts