When a school district lays off teachers, it must be based on performance, not seniority, under a proposal passed out of the Iowa House Education Committee.
The bill says when schools lay off staff because of funding or enrollment, they should start with administrative staff. If layoffs reach licensed employees, the reasoning would have to be based on things like student academic growth and not on how long they’ve worked there.
Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, says many school districts already have layoff policies, and she says performance-based layoffs unfairly target teachers with challenging classrooms.
“To me, and clearly what I have heard from plenty of other folks, is that this bill, whether it is the intention or not, is going after the teachers who work with the hardest students first.”
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ryan Weldon, R-Ankeny, says the proposal promotes consistency and fairness across Iowa schools. He said the bill only requires schools to adopt a policy for laying off staff, it does not mandate any cuts.
All of the lobbyists listed for the first meeting on the bill were registered against it.