Under a new collective bargaining agreement agreed to by the Minneapolis Teachers Union, teachers of color in Minneapolis would be given extra job security while white teachers would be laid off first due to the color of their skin.
Published over the weekend, the contract states that “teachers of color may be exempted from district-wide layoffs outside seniority order,” meaning workplace seniority in these schools now depends on the color of skin in the Minneapolis district.
The district has been facing mounting economic pressure due to a sharp decline in classroom learning due to the draconian pandemic response.
“Starting with the Spring 2023, budget tie-out cycle, if excessing (reducing) a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the District shall excess the next last senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population.”
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 60 percent of students in Minneapolis are non-white compared to 16 percent of the full-time teachers, and 27 percent of the probationary teachers.
“The CBA openly discriminates against white teachers based only on the color of their skin, and not their seniority or merit,” said James Dickey, senior trial counsel at the Upper Midwest Law Center.
The Star-Tribune also reports that the school district is set to lose more than four dozen teachers in the fall this year due to layoffs amid declining enrollment of in-person students.
While many have decried the contract as the definition of racism, leftists see it as a “model” for America and other cities “to emulate.”
“It can be a national model and schools and other states are looking to emulate what we did.” Minneapolis Federation of Teachers executive board member, Edward Barlow said in supporting the bill.
14 Responses
The ethnicities of the teachers are irrelevant if they have been well prepared in the domains they are teaching and are dedicated to their profession! Teaching has to be practical in order to be assimilated by children on a permanent basis. But, leftists are ideologues, most of the time, typically using Marxist principles, disregarding the debated issues, including the racial ones! The fact that the communist European governments (mostly Caucasian) have collapsed between 1989-91 is irrelevant to them because they think communism is equitable!
While many have decried the contract as the definition of racism, leftists see it as a “model” for America and other cities “to emulate.”
I wonder if the leftists will see it this way when it’s their jobs that are in jeopardy. This isn’t going just be teachers, keep pushing your leftist ideology, and you could be the ones in the unemployment line.
It is also unconstitutional — perhaps GOOD teachers, irrespective of color, should be on the Minneapolis Teachers Union.
Wow. This ought to make Caucasian teachers really feel good about paying union dues to the liberal labor unions that basically do nothing but collect money for union officers and staff and to make political contributions to demoncRATS.
The money collection have been going on for dozens of decades. But this racial bias is a new reason to dissolve labor unions. There are cites and states where one cannot be forced to belong to such socialist organizations which do nothing but take your money. Kick them out of your lives.
Excellent example of outright racism. Growing up I was told that if you discriminate against someone simply because of their color it was immoral. And I believe that racism is immoral. Anytime anyone’s subject the special treatment whether positive or negative simply because of their color or a fancy word ethnicity, it’s racism outright punitive racism
I agree. There should be no descrimination on any color of any person.
Please read my comment above yours to better understand the issue.
I realize this decision is being used by conservatives as a rallying cry for supersensitive whites to react to, but before you get your backs up, re-read the statistical information in the article: “According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 60 percent of students in Minneapolis are non-white compared to 16 percent of the full-time teachers, and 27 percent of the probationary teachers.” They obviously have a dirth of African-American teachers in the system and realize that it is highly likely that A-A students are more likely to continue to stay in school if they feel they have teachers they can more easily relate to. This is not “racism”, folks, it’s common sense if you actually want to keep kids in schools, especially if the kids belong to a minority that doesn’t always have strong home-based incentives to stay in school.
Mona, I did read the statistics, but I still feel though that teachers should not have to be this color vs this color when teaching. All colors should be able to teach all children.
Sounds like you are trying to justify racial discrimination no matter how to spin it. Time for the white people to head to the courts like the black peoples leaders always do to get their way. What B.S. you are pushing. I’m white and one of my favorite teachers was was a Mr. Wharton my black Chemistry teacher.
Sounds like a excuse for perpetuating racism.
There is a “dearth” of Black teachers and this is why Black kids don’t do as well as Whites? Are Asian teachers exempted? Mona, why not visit a big city school systems like say Baltimore. You will see an overwhelming majority of teachers are Black. You will see a Black administration. You will see a system where about 15% of kids can read and do math at an acceptable level. Role models? I note 27% of probationary teachers are Black. Why haven’t they passed the requirements? This color based layoff of whites is RACIST and counterproductive and dumb.
Racism is racism ,no matter how you try to portray it.That should be the end of the teachers union!!!The white teachers should just walk out
This is beyond rational thinking. As a former educator it is inconceivable that performance and experience take a back seat to ethnicity.