Public schools from communities across the economic spectrum have lost teachers recently.
But this year, as in the past, low-performing schools have been harmed disproportionately by massive teacher layoffs.
Seniority rules embedded in the state education code and teacher contracts account for the phenomenon.
With rare exceptions, seniority requires that young teachers -- those last hired -- are the ones first fired. Because a disproportionate number of new teachers are assigned to the most challenging schools -- often those with a higher percentage of low-income students -- it's low-performing schools that consistently are hit with the largest number of layoffs.
Senate Bill 1285, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would help. It would prohibit districts from laying off teachers at low-performing schools at a higher rate than the district average.
"It is not a panacea," Steinberg concedes, but at least it would equalize teacher layoffs between high- and low-performing schools.
Not surprisingly, the California Teachers Association fiercely opposes the Steinberg bill and its perceived challenge to seniority.
Based on the way labor groups work, no union wants to lose the ability to protect its veteran members. But the Steinberg bill doesn't really challenge seniority.
It protects vulnerable kids, mostly the poor and minorities, by giving school districts needed incentives to assign a healthy mix of veteran teachers with valuable experience alongside rookies with new ideas and enthusiasm to the most challenging schools.
What is wrong with that? Booting 25 percent to one-third or more of a school's teaching staff every year is no way to improve achievement in low-performing schools. It condemns students, teachers and schools to failure. No one wins.
In a year with too little money to invest in schools, Steinberg's bill offers districts a way to improve educational outcomes for their most vulnerable students.
If Democrats in the Legislature really care about children and equal opportunity, as they say they do, they will pass this bill even in the face of CTA threats.
Editorials are the opinion of the Merced Sun-Star editorial board. Members of the editorial board include Publisher Debra Kuykendall, Executive Editor Mike Tharp, Editorial Page Editor Keith Jones, Copy Desk Chief Jesse Chenault and Online Editor Brandon Bowers.
(This editorial originated with our sister newspaper The Fresno Bee.)
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