Eduwonk’s Andy Rotherham Sees the Light on LIFO

LIFO policies are hardly unsupportable.
In many states they were adopted as a means
of avoiding law suits (racial discrimination, etc.)
and a lot of minority teachers worry about
their elimination

this comment actually comes from AR's eduwonk —
http://www.eduwonk.com/2011/04/lifo.html

Attorney DC Says:
April 1st, 2011 at 9:43 am
In all seriousness, I am wary of dismantling LIFO policies because I believe they will be replaced with the following bases for retention (in no particular order): (1) Teachers the principal likes (maybe they belong to the same church or have kids who are friends); (2) Teachers who never criticize the principal or any of his policies publicly (see #1); (3) Teachers who are inexperienced and, hence, cheapest; and (4) Teachers who actually are good teachers.
As a former teacher (who has worked for several different principals), I am pretty confident that #4 (teaching effectiveness) will NOT be the only criteria used for retention decisions, although some policy makers seem to believe it will be — perhaps they never had the experience of working for a capricious principal?