Ilinois to end LIFO teacher layoffs

Yesterday, the three largest teachers' unions in Illinois announced their support for an education reform package that will, among other things, eliminate the rule that teacher layoffs must be conducted on the basis of seniority. This rule is widely known as Last In-First Out, or LIFO. The reform package will also make it more difficult for teachers' unions to strike and will allow school districts to exclude the issues of school day and year length from collective bargaining.

The proposal has broad bipartisan support in the state Senate and is also backed by Governor Pat Quinn, who has close ties to public workers' unions. So, it is highly likely to become law.

At first, the union support for the reform made me nervous that it was not substantive. But Collin Hitt, senior policy analyst at the Illinois Policy Institute and sometime contributor to PSI, says this is a good package and "a step in the right direction." He attributes the unions' willingness to deal to strong interest in the Illinois House--also controlled by Democrats--in passing an even more aggressive reform.

As most New Yorkers know, LIFO has been a huge political issue here over the last few months. Mayor Mike Bloomberg has proposed a large number of teacher layoffs as part of the city's 2012 budget and has lobbied Albany to end LIFO so those layoffs can be less numerous and less disruptive. But so far, Governor Andrew Cuomo demurred, essentially buying the teachers' unions acquiescence on cuts to education aid in exchange for not pushing layoff reform.