A new standard is being proposed for Oregon schools that would allow districts to lay off teachers with more experience if junior teachers have more “anti-bias” training.
The Daily Wire reported the plan in the state legislature is from Democratic Reps. Tawana Sanchez, Teresa Alonso Leon, Janelle Bynum and Julianne Fahey.
It is meant to modify the state’s Minority Teacher Act of 1991, which addresses the “disparity between the state’s diverse student population and this state’s predominately white teacher workforce.”
The bill proposes a plan for staff reductions that would include an exception for a “diversity ratio.” It states that any school district making staff reductions must keep teachers with “less seniority” if the teacher has more “merit,” which is described as “anti-bias” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion training.”
Merit is considered “the measurement of the ability and effectiveness of one teacher, as measured against the ability and effectiveness of another teacher based on consideration of any of the following factors … training received by a teacher related to anti-bias, diversity, equity, inclusion, cultural responsive practices or restorative justice practices.”
The text of the proposal also cites other considerations, such as “languages spokesman by the teacher that are not English,” “years the teacher has taught in schools where at least 25 percent of the student population is diverse” and the teacher’s participation in programs “to advance the goal of the Educators Equity Act.”
According to the Daily Wire report: “The bill redefined the word ‘competence’ as well. According to the text, competent employees must be willing to undergo additional anti-bias training. Competence is defined as ‘the ability of a teacher to teach a subject or grade level based on consideration of any of the following. … The teacher’s willingness to undergo additional training or pursue additional education.’”
The goal of the original Minority Teacher Act was to get the “number of minority teachers, including administrators, employed by school districts and education service districts [to] be approximately proportion[al] to the number of minority children enrolled in the public schools in this state” by 2001, the report said.
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