A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has approved a sweeping overhaul of how teachers are laid off in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Education reformers said the overhaul would keep effective instructors in the classroom, but unions denounced it as a step toward dismantling tenure policies.
The Jan. 21 ruling involved a settlement of a lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California last year, charging that inner-city students’ right to a quality education was being violated by a last-hired, first-fired layoff policy.
Under the agreement, the district said it would shield 45 of its lowest-performing schools from layoffs and ensure that the redistribution of job cuts would not hit schools already experiencing greater-than-average layoffs for the year. The settlement also called for an incentive plan to attract teachers and principals to struggling schools.
United Teachers Los Angeles, a teachers’ union, said it would appeal.
