Since they were third graders, my children have attended Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS). Next fall, they will be high schoolers. They have never had a single classroom teacher of color. I’ll never forget the day my then-sixth grade son arrived home and excitedly shared, “I had a sub that looked like me, Mom. It was amazing!” That was one hour of one day of one school year.
I hope my kids will get the chance to have a teacher who shares their racial identity before their MPS career ends, but the current odds are low. MPS and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) have an opportunity to change those odds, but they have to get serious about improving the retention of teachers of color.
After 10 months of fruitless bargaining, this month MPS and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) began negotiating with a mediator, away from the public spotlight, to try to move their talks forward. One of the unresolved issues is a contract amendment to alter the layoff process and protect the retention of MPS teachers of color.
Right now, MPS has both many unfilled positions and budget challenges that suggest layoffs could become a reality as soon as next school year. How can we be both under- and overstaffed? Here’s how: In some subject areas, MPS has positions that they aren’t able to fill; in others, they are overstaffed because of declining enrollment.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Superintendent Ed Graff has prevented staff layoffs by using federal aid dollars. However, federal aid can only stave off layoffs temporarily, since enrollment continues to decline. We face consistent MPS budget challenges because the district operates as if it still serves 50,000 students.
While the likelihood of eventual layoffs concerns all staff, it is particularly worrisome for teachers of color, who are likely to be more recent hires now and in the future. Currently, teachers of color make up only 21% of the licensed teachers in MPS, compared to 66% of the student population. The district has stated its priority to hire more teachers of color.
However, like most teacher contracts, our district’s contract with the MFT includes a layoff process commonly known as Last In, First Out (LIFO), which would release the district’s newest hires first. Thus, LIFO is very likely to undermine the district’s efforts to increase the number of teachers of color in MPS.
Unfortunately, the window to agree to changes to LIFO creating protection for recently hired teachers of color is closing quickly. MPS and MFT must come to an agreement to protect teachers of color across the district from layoffs. Such an agreement altering the current LIFO process must be in place by the end of February, when schools submit next year’s budgets to the district’s central office. This timeline gives MPS and MFT only three months to come to an agreement in mediation.
[image_caption]Heather Anderson[/image_caption]
For years, communities of color in Minneapolis have been demanding this change. We know it matters to our children. In 2019, I served on the MPS Achievement & Integration Advisory Committee. The data we saw were clear: MPS students performed significantly better when they could see themselves in their teachers.
After 18 months of distance learning, MPS cannot afford to lose a single teacher of color who is supporting student academic growth. Creating protections for teachers of color across the district will not solve all the recruitment and retention issues. However, it is a necessary step MPS and MFT can take to support our teachers of color and improve academic outcomes for students of color.
We do not have time for games. Both parties need to get serious about retaining and protecting teachers of color. Otherwise, my children, and thousands of other MPS students of color, may never see a teacher who looks like them.
Heather Anderson is the director of organizing for the Advancing Equity Coalition and the mother of two MPS eighth graders.
If Minneapolis lays off teachers they will get hired by neighboring districts immediately. Everyone is short staffed.
I know that this is going to be a shock, but the Advancing Equity Coalition is funded by right-wing billionaires and corporate education “reform” organizations. Maybe that is just a given for education pieces in Minnpost.
Maybe you could come up with a merit-based alternative to LIFO, but deciding who to lay off based strictly on race is going to be a legal disaster.
“Advancing Equity Coalition is funded by right-wing billionaires”
A link would be nice. This does not seem to be the case based on all their affiliated organizations.
Or maybe right wing billionaires have turned over a new leaf?
You would need a big chart to tie all these groups and their funding together, but its all the same people and same groups. They keep popping up. But its all the usual suspects – Educators for Excellence, et al. Its meant to look grassroots, but its astroturfing.
Some great points as to students seeing people who look like them in terms of skin color. I am curious if MPS has 50% male teachers- that would be extremely helpful for both boys and girls to see. Are 50% of the administrators male or people of color? These are issues to look at with a long term lens. Would it help if teachers were your neighbors? Do you want the best teachers for your child?
Long term solutions would be to encourage more males and people of various colors to enter teaching. Right now there are no incentives and most schools can’t get substitute teachers, much less hire new teachers. Kids are taught in the hallways due to no subs. I raise the question as to what does the incoming pipeline look like? Another question is the huge teacher turnover- how can we encourage teachers to stay in teaching? Why does such a large percentage leave? Do teachers have input on discipline or curriculum? Hiring by skin color I think could be a difficult issue to deal with today’s school communities. Budget layoffs add to this issue of instability to a teaching job. These questions need to be answered in order to solve the issues Ms. Anderson raises. I prefer we hire more people that are male and are of any color- we need more good teachers NOW.
The problem is the law. “Creating protections for teachers of color” will not withstand a challenge.
The workaround? Create protections for teachers who are low income. You’ll get your desired results, and it is legal.
One may think the teachers and administrators (any color of skin) of MPS would be more concerned with 1/2 of the students they teach not being proficient in math, reading and writing after 13 years of public schools. Clearly whatever they are doing is not working from an academic approach not a skin color approach.
That’s what the article is saying: whatever they’ve been doing is NOT working. To raise the proficiency in math, reading and writing of students of color, a new approach is needed to attract and retain good teachers and role models. The article didn’t say keep all teachers based on a skin color quota. It said MPS can’t afford to lose “any teacher of color who is supporting academic growth.”
I was a teacher of color in the district. I was so discouraged by the racism and bullying I received from other staff members, I gave up. Train your staff on how to be anti-racist and maybe teachers of color would want to stay.