Lawsuit Challenges N.J.'s Teacher Layoff Rules: ‘Last In, First Out’

NEWARK, NJ — A group of six parents from Newark launched a lawsuit on Tuesday in Mercer County Court challenging the constitutionality of New Jersey’s “last in, first out” (LIFO) teacher layoff rules.

Currently, New Jersey schools facing staff cuts are required to lay off teachers in “reverse-seniority” order based on the date they were hired. It’s a policy that supporters such as the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) say provides an important protection to students and communities by keeping politics - and politicians - out of the decision-making process when layoffs are imposed.

However, the complaint, HG v. Harrington, charges that New Jersey’s LIFO rules harm students by “unjustly requiring school districts to ignore teacher quality and retain ineffective teachers.”

“Our schools face severe budget cuts, our children deserve the best teachers possible, and the ‘last in, first out’ teacher layoff law stands in the way of this,” said Tanisha Garner, mother of two Newark Public School students and plaintiff in HG v. Harrington.

AN ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ LAW

The group of Essex County parents is challenging the constitutionality of the state law and requesting that the New Jersey Education Commissioner be allowed to waive the LIFO requirements in Newark and similar districts.

“By forcing school districts like Newark to either lay off effective teachers while keeping ineffective ones, or pay for costly and elaborate measures to avoid losing good teachers, New Jersey’s teacher layoff law results in a clear violation of the state constitutional promise to provide a ‘thorough and efficient’ public education to every child,” said Kent Yalowitz, Partner at Arnold & Porter, the lead firm representing the plaintiff families.

The parents’ lawsuit was organized by advocacy group Partnership for Educational Justice, which has also aided in similar efforts in Minnesota and New York.

A copy of the complaint can be seen online here.

PROTECTING TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Local and state teacher unions panned the lawsuit, calling it a politically motivated move that would ultimately harm both educators and students.

The president of the New Jersey Education Association – which represents 125,079 teachers in the Garden State – released a Tuesday statement that blasted the lawsuit.

“Campbell Brown and her out-of-state special interest group are misleading New Jersey parents and residents about our public schools to advance their harmful political agenda,” NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer said. “New Jersey’s seniority statute, which they seek to overturn by court order, provides an important protection to students and communities by keeping politics, and politicians, out of the decision-making process when layoffs are imposed on our public schools.”

Steinhauer continued:

“The lawsuit is premised on a lie that districts are prevented from dealing with teachers who are not willing or able to do their jobs effectively. Tenure is difficult to obtain in New Jersey, so no teacher gets tenure without demonstrating an ability to do the job well. Even more, the tenure law outlines a specific and fair process to remove a teacher who is ineffective at any time. What the law prevents is the sort of political interference that would be inevitable if administrators could be pressured to fire teachers without having to give a reason. This lawsuit seeks to throw out that system of checks and balances and give unfettered freedom to fire excellent veteran teachers in favor of less experienced newer teachers who earn lower salaries.”

Steinhauer said that the lawsuit is an attempt to scapegoat teachers for the state’s failure to provide the resources and support needed in so many districts across the state.

“If the state would meet its legal and moral obligation to fund schools according to the need identified by the state’s funding formula, districts would not be forced to make harmful layoffs,” Steinhauer opined.

Photo: U.S. Department of Education, Flickr

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