Connecticut’s Teacher Tenure and Layoff Policies Need Reform

Hartford CT – Senator Toni Boucher (R-26) believes teacher seniority should not be the only criteria taken into consideration when dealing with lay offs.

“We should not be losing good teachers based on the last in, first out basis,” said Senator Boucher. “Along with many veteran teachers, there are young teachers who out perform their peers and should not be laid off simply because they haven’t logged enough hours on the job.”

There is a proposal to expand teacher tenure laws to include evaluations into the equation when considering who to layoff, but the legislation doesn’t address seniority based layoffs.

The Senate Bill is 1160, AN ACT CONCERNING SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION, THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL TEACHER PERFORMANCE EVALUATION SYSTEM, AND TEACHER TENURE LAWS AND COOPERATIVE ARRANGEMENTS.

The bill requires a Performance Evaluation Advisory Council to develop a model teacher evaluation system. Local and regional boards of education and regional educational service centers would have to follow the system when considering who to keep and who to let go.

But Senator Boucher believes SB 1160 should also include alternative seniority based layoffs as well. Right now, many districts use social security numbers as the marker for whom to layoff. The lower the last four digits of the social security number the older the person is and will, in most cases, be kept on the payroll.

Senator Boucher has suggested alternatives such as the use of seniority rules ‘school to school’ in order to keep the nucleus of a school intact and including teachers themselves as a part of a peer review layoff decision making process. But these ideas have been rebuffed in the past.

“Using seniority as one of the factors in weighing who will be let go is acceptable, but should not be the only factor,” said Senator Boucher. “The smarter layoff policy would be one that includes not only seniority but encompasses measures such as: performance reviews, extraordinary merit and specialized training.”

Senator Boucher believes it’s about accountability and agrees tenured teachers should still have due process protection if they felt they had been unfairly dismissed.

(Senator Boucher is a ranking member on The Education Committee)