MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When teachers in Minneapolis announced a 14-day strike in March, they celebrated a groundbreaking provision in their new contract that would protect teachers of color from layoffs based on seniority and help ensure that racial minority students have teachers who look like them.
Within months, the conservative media erupted with condemnation of the policy as racist and unconstitutional discrimination against white educators. One legal group is looking for teachers and taxpayers willing to sue to get the language thrown out. The teachers union paints the dispute as a planned dispute, unless there is an immediate danger that someone will lose their job. Meanwhile, the feud unfolds just months before arguments in a pair of U.S. Supreme Court cases that could change affirmative action.
“The same people who want to eliminate teacher unions and blame seniority are now defending it for white people,” said Greta Callahan, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers division. “This is all now invented by the right wing. And we are more than proud of this language.”
Recent coverage on conservative platforms such as local news website Alpha News, Fox News nationally and the Daily Mail internationally has drawn criticism from prominent figures including Donald Trump Jr. and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who limited the power of trade unions of civil servants in his state. Walker called it “another example of why public unions should be eliminated” on Twitter.
The contract does not specifically say that white teachers will be laid off before those of color, although critics say that would be the effect. The contract exempts “teachers from populations underrepresented among licensed teachers in the district,” as well as graduates from historically black and Hispanic colleges and tribal colleges. About 60% of the district’s teachers are white, while more than 60% of the students are racial minorities.
Defenders say racial minority students work better when educators include teachers of color and support staff, and that this is especially important in a district plagued by stubborn achievement gaps. Callahan said her union struggled for years to get protections added to their contract, and that she knows of two other districts in Minnesota with similar provisions.
Callahan called it “just a small, tiny step toward justice” that doesn’t make up for the fact that many teachers of color have left the district in recent years because they felt underpaid and disrespected.
For Lindsey West, a fifth-grade teacher at Clara Barton Community School who identifies as black and indigenous, the language of tenure is part of a larger mission to improve education.
West said she feels strongly that students of color benefit from having teachers who look like them, but said she also saw that diversity could empower white students. She said she was sometimes the first teacher of color students had to black and white students.
“We want kids of all demographics to have the experience of interacting with people of different backgrounds and cultures and realizing that our shared humanity is what matters, not what divides us,” West said.
Interim Minneapolis Public Schools Superintendent Rachelle Cox declined an interview request.
“The intent of this provision is to clearly fire white teachers in the first place, regardless of merit, based on the color of their skin, and that’s a big problem under the Constitution and the 14th Amendment,” said James Dickey, senior trial attorney at the Law Center. of the Upper Midwest, a conservative nonprofit that often takes on public employee unions. It has launched lawsuits over issues such as COVID-19 masks and displays of Black Lives Matter posters.
Dickey said his group is considering a lawsuit, and a flood of Minneapolis taxpayers — and some teachers — have contacted them to say they are “offended that my tax dollars could go to fund this kind of racist program.”
He argued that a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, known as the Wygant case, barred such provisions and would set a precedent in Minnesota.
The Wygant case involved a teachers’ contract in Jackson, Michigan, which differed from the Minneapolis agreement’s approach. In effect, it said Jackson could not make the cuts, which resulted in an overall decrease in the percentage of minority staff employed by the district. White teachers sued after being fired, while some teachers of color with less tenure kept their jobs. A divided Supreme Court held that the firings violated the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution.
Andrew Crook, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, said he was not aware of anything similar to Minneapolis’ wording in contracts in other states, though he said some contracts provide exceptions to simple seniority rules for teachers in hard-to-fill specialties. such as mathematics and special education.
Representatives of other national civil service unions and professional associations either said they were unaware of anything similar in their fields or did not respond to requests for comment.
Affirmative action has been reviewed by the high court several times over the past 40 years and has generally been upheld, but with limitations. However, with three new conservative justices on the court since its last hearing, practice may face its greatest threat yet.
Joseph Daly, a professor emeritus at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law who has handled disputes across the country, including many teacher cases over the years, said the Minneapolis language appears to be designed to survive a legal challenge.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has in the past taken affirmative action when there were very strong goals to be achieved in ultimately achieving equality for all people,” Daley said. “Now the question today is, will this concept be supported by the courts in light of the more conservative position on the Supreme Court? I don’t have an answer to that.”
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