President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten appeared to endorse Monday a race-based policy between the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and a district which said White educators would be laid off first before teachers of color in a scenario in which a school faces staff cuts.
Weingarten tweeted an article from the Associated Press about the agreement reached between the union and the Minneapolis Public Schools district, and said, "This." She also included a quote from a local teacher union leader, who said, "The same people who want to take down teachers unions and blame seniority are now defending it for white people. This is all made up by the right wing now."
The policy said, "if excessing a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the district shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population."
Public school teachers can subject to "excessing" for a variety of reasons, including a decreased number of students enrolling for that academic year or a budget cuts.
Fox News Digital spoke with attorneys about the policy who suggested it could be "illegal."
Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney, said. "It’s illegal, it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment… You’re using race as a criteria to lay of individuals. It’s illegal. It’s unconstitutional."
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He added that the policy could create a "hostile work environment."
Helen Rella, an employment and labor attorney, said, "It’s trying to remedy past discrimination with present discrimination, and it’s inappropriate."
"You will create a hostile work environment where racial animas is very prevalent in schools," he said.
Kimberly Hermann, general counsel for the Southeastern Legal Foundation told Fox News Digital, "The contract between Minneapolis Public Schools and the local teachers union… is unconstitutional… and sets our country back decades in race relations."
