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An LA Superior Judge ruled last Friday that the LA Unified School District can no longer universally apply a “last hired, first fired” layoff policy. The decision marked the end of a closely watched lawsuit that may have national implications. The American Civil Liberties Union led a legal team that brought the suit against the State, arguing that seniority based firing was disproportionately detrimental to inner-city schools. These schools tend to have high staff turnover, and newly hired teachers are more likely to fill vacant spaces than veteran educators. A last-hired, first-fired layoff policy leads to the brunt of layoffs taking place within the small group of hard-to-staff LA schools. The ACLU said the rights of the students of these schools to a quality education was being violated by this policy. Some LAUSD schools lost 50% of their teachers to layoffs; many of these teachers had requested to be placed in urban schools and they were effective in the environment. As a result of the lawsuit some schools will see no layoffs for one year and district wide layoffs must be spread equitably between schools.

GUEST: Howard Blume, LA Times reporter and co-host with Barbara Osborn of Deadline LA heard on KPFK Fridays at 3:30 pm