In an op-ed article of Nov. 28, 2016 (“NJ Parents Fight Unjust Teacher Layoff Law”), the attorneys for the plaintiffs, funded by an out-of-state group that seeks to challenge seniority and tenure throughout the nation, have sued both the State and local education entities in Newark to set aside the century-old seniority and tenure laws governing the order of layoffs of tenured teachers that bar them from removing ineffective teachers from the school districts, thereby violating the Thorough and Efficient Clause of the New Jersey Constitution.

Ignoring decades of poverty and abandonment of essential social services, and placing all the blame solely on teachers, their argument that seniority is the root of all evil misses the point entirely. First of all, seniority is intended as an objective standard to protect teachers from terminations based upon political motivations, the will or whim of supervisors and principals who may protect favorites, or who wish to rid themselves of those who freely express their views on different and innovative teaching methods, rewarding conformity. And in the many districts without ineffective teachers, absent seniority protection there would be no standard for the order of layoffs other than the whim of administrators, but there would be a budgetary motivation to eliminate more senior and expensive teachers in order to keep less expensive junior ones.

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