Teacher layoff bills gain little traction in DFL-led Senate

Bills that would weaken the power of seniority in teacher layoffs saw nearly three hours of debate Thursday in the Senate Education Committee, but in the end received no vote.

Still, the lively discussion included testimony by parents, school board members, a superintendent and even a neuroscience expert brought in by Education Minnesota, the state's teachers union.

The two measures, one already approved by the GOP-led House, would require school districts to consider performance, not only seniority, when laying off teachers because of budget cuts.

Revisions to seniority rules that guide layoffs are a top priority for Republican legislators, but have failed to gain traction in the DFL-led Senate.

Sen. Terri Bonoff of Minnetonka is the sponsor of one of the bills and is the only DFL legislator in favor of revising seniority rules for teachers.

Bonoff and other proponents said the legislation is vital to helping close Minnesota's long-running achievement gaps between white and minority students. She cited a recent California court case in which teacher tenure and seniority-guided layoffs were ruled unconstitutional.

"This is not about keeping young people over old people," Bonoff said. It's about "serving students to the best of our ability … this issue is a matter of civil rights."

The union argues that the change would undermine a recently implemented teacher evaluation law that they say was intended to develop teachers' skills. It would pit teachers against one another since peer reviews are part of teacher evaluation requirements.

Bonoff said she rejected that notion and argued that most school districts' teacher evaluations plans were designed with teacher input.

Josh Davis, a researcher with the NeuroLeadership Institute based in New York, testified that teacher rankings hurt morale and distract teachers with low ratings.

"When there's any kind of threat [such as low evaluation ratings] to our status … it's very hard to concentrate," he said.

Minnesota is one of fewer than a dozen states where a teacher's job security is determined largely by the date of hire. Education Minnesota has argued that current law allows school districts to negotiate layoff procedures. It estimates that 142, or 40 percent, of districts have negotiated factors that go beyond seniority.

In some cases, those districts will use other factors — ranging from extracurricular experience to college grade-point averages to Social Security numbers or even a coin flip — to break a tie, according to the contract language.

Republican Sen. Eric Pratt of Prior Lake, Senate sponsor of House File 2, said his staff's review of teaching contracts also found that seniority ruled.

Pratt's bill, sponsored in the House by Republican Rep. Jenifer Loon of Eden Prairie, would also make it easier for out-of-state teachers to become licensed in Minnesota, a process critics say is now too cumbersome. The measure, passed 70-63 in the House, would also require the state's Board of Teaching to allow educators from neighboring states to transfer their licenses to Minnesota.

Senate Education Committee Chair Chuck Wiger, DFL-Maplewood, said the bills would be laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus education bill. Bonoff said she intends to attempt including the legislation in negotiations toward the end of the session.