Don't push good teachers over the fiscal cliff

School districts are hiring more staffers, even as enrollments decline. When federal pandemic relief funds run out in 2024, ,who will be tossed off the fiscal cliff?, asks Fordham’s Michael Petrilli on Education Next.

State laws and contracts with teachers’ unions require “last in, first out” policies with no regard for teacher effectiveness, he writes. After the Great Recession in 2009, districts “laid off the youngest teachers first, cut tutoring and other ‘extras,’ and eliminated teacher coaches and the like.”

Student achievement fell as a result, researchers concluded.