(credit: kevindooley)

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg just announced a budget that will require 4,100 public school teachers to be laid off. That’s pretty tough news for a city with a challenging (to say the least) public school system. But what’s even tougher is the way those unlucky teachers will be chosen.

We’ve written about the last-in-first-out rule before (LIFO). In New York, the law says that teachers must be fired in reverse order of when they were hired. That means that an idealistic 24-year old with enough energy to start her career in an overcrowded, underfunded public school in the Bronx is more likely to be fired than an underperforming veteran.

What’s interesting is that many of the young teachers who are set to be laid off are actually participants in programs (like Teach for America and NYC Teaching Fellows) designed to bring new energy and drive INTO the public schools.

Well, there goes that idea. How do you think the public education system can be improved?

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