A Minneapolis school district is defending its agreement with a teachers union to lay off white teachers before minority educators, calling it necessary to address “past discrimination.”
Some legal experts have called the agreement, which stipulates that Minneapolis Public Schools must lay off or reassign white teachers before “educators of color,” unconstitutional, with others predicting it will be struck down. However, the district defended its decision in a statement earlier this week, arguing it will help to support the recruitment of minority teachers.
“To remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination, Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers mutually agreed to contract language that aims to support the recruitment and retention of teachers from underrepresented groups as compared to the labor market and to the community served by the school district,” the district official told the Washington Times.
The agreement, made in late March between the district and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said that if a school is seeking to reduce the staff or the number of available positions, the district “shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population.” Under the contract, nonwhite teachers “may be exempted from district-wide layoff[s] outside seniority order.”
Additionally, the agreement allows teachers from “underrepresented populations” to be reinstated to their positions over white teachers, according to the agreement.
However, the announcement prompted widespread backlash, with many arguing the decision violates the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
“When it comes to termination (as opposed to hiring or promotion under an affirmative-action plan), an employer can’t racially discriminate even against whites,” wrote Hans Bader, a former Education Department attorney, in an op-ed for Liberty Unyielding.
The agreement is set to take effect in the spring 2023 semester.
