Minneapolis Teachers Union Contract Demands White Teachers Be Fired First

A Minneapolis teachers union contract stipulates that white teachers will be laid off or reassigned before "educators of color" in the event Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) needs to reduce staff.

After the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and MPS struck a deal on March 25 to end a 14-day teacher strike, the two sides drew up and ratified a new collective bargaining agreement complete with various proposals.

One of the proposals dealt with "educators of color protections." The agreement states that if a non-white teacher is subject to excess, MPS must excess a white teacher with the "next least" seniority.

"Starting with the Spring 2023 Budget Tie-Out Cycle, if excessing a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the District shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population," the agreement reads.

[...] The agreement adds that non-white teachers, as well as those working in various programs, "may be exempted from district-wide layoff[s] outside seniority order." The agreement also prioritizes the reinstatement of teachers from "underrepresented populations" over white teachers.

[...] "Past discrimination by the District disproportionately impacted the hiring of underrepresented teachers in the District, as compared to the relevant labor market and the community, and resulted in a lack of diversity of teachers," the agreement adds.

The Star Tribune reports that the "seniority-disrupting language" of the agreement is one of the first of its kind in the entire United States. Teachers are normally laid off or excessed based on seniority alone, but the new agreement adds a racial component as well.