Categories: General

Star Ledger Editorial Board Links Vegara Case To NJ’s Failure to Eliminate LIFO

Good teachers are an incredibly important variable in student success. Last year, a Harvard researcher found that students taught by an incompetent teacher lose more than nine months of learning in a single year. Yet just like California, New Jersey still has a law in place that — in times of layoffs — requires a school to fire a talented teacher whom everyone agrees is superior, simply because that person has less seniority.

How is that consistent with the constitutional guarantee of a quality education?

New Jersey reformed its teacher tenure laws two years ago, but didn’t touch the practice known as “last in, first out,” which protects absolute seniority rights in times of layoffs. That’s where the teachers’ union drew a red line.

This means that schools facing layoffs in the next few years will be forced to purge younger teachers — even the most gifted and hardworking ones. The main victims of this policy are poor kids. Teacher quality is much more meaningful for them, because they don’t come pre-loaded for success.

Why should a state statute protected by the union be allowed to trump children’s constitutional right to a quality education?

See here for full editorial.

Laura Waters

View Comments

  • Tom Moran has made union-busting the civil rights crusade of the 21st Century.

    How sad that he has evidently forgotten the origins of the labor movement itself.

Recent Posts

BREAKING: Statement from JerseyCAN on State’s Long-Delayed Release of Student Test Results

This is a statement by Paula White, Executive Director of JerseyCAN, on the New Jersey…

2 years ago

NJEA: Murphy’s Elimination of Teacher Performance Test Is a Major Win for Students and Educators

This is a press release. Earlier today, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill to eliminate…

2 years ago

Murphy Signs Bill Eliminating EdTPA Test for Teacher Certification

Today Gov. Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill 896, which prohibits the New Jersey Department of…

2 years ago

LILLEY: Blue States Had More School Closures and More Learning Loss — Just Like NJ under Gov. Murphy

The 74 conducted a study of the relative learning loss in Democratic (Blue) and Republican (Red) states and…

2 years ago

One of Newark Superintendent’s New High Schools Tolerates Racism Against Black Students

In October 2020 Newark Superintendent Roger Leon announced with great fanfare the opening of district’s…

2 years ago