LOS ANGELES – The employment principle of “last in, first out” (LIFO) is enshrined in California’s education code and treated as sacrosanct by the state’s powerful teachers’ unions.

It compels public school administrators to make seniority the paramount consideration when facing layoff choices, putting quantity (time served) over quality. But time may be running out for LIFO. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu has until July to rule in a closely watched lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of California’s teacher-seniority and dismissal statutes. If Treu rules for the nine plaintiffs in Vergara v. California, barring a successful appeal, LIFO will die.

Seniority as staffing policy has long since outlived its usefulness, if it ever had any. While California’s well-chronicled fiscal problems have taken a toll on the teaching profession, the state’s seniority system has made matters worse. A recent Sacramento Bee review of state data between 2008 and 2013 found a 40 percent decline in teachers with less than six years’ experience. As districts let new teachers go and stopped hiring, college students began switching to more promising professions. Enrollment in college teaching programs fell by 41 percent between 2008 and 2012.

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Eliminating seniority as a consideration would mean fewer teachers getting laid off when budget cuts become necessary. Under the “step-and-column” method of giving teachers automatic salary increases based on seniority and obtainment of advanced degrees, veterans make considerably more than newer hires. The Annenberg Institute reports that districts could readily meet budget goals if they had greater leeway in letting teachers go based on quality, not seniority. And retention based on effectiveness would elevate the profession, as the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office notes, because basing employment decisions on the number of years served “can lead to lower quality of the overall teacher workforce.”

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