By Reagan Reese
A Minneapolis school district is being sued over its recent contract with a teachers union that fires white teachers first over minority teachers, according to the lawsuit.
Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on Aug. 23 against Minneapolis Public Schools, the superintendent Rochelle Cox and the Minneapolis Board of Education. The lawsuit alleges that the contract violates the Equal Protection Guarantee of the Minnesota Constitution by firing teachers who are not a part of an underrepresented population first, rather than firing teachers on the basis of seniority. (RELATED: Teachers Union President Defends School District That Will Lay Off White Teachers First)
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Deborah Jane Clapp, who pays taxes to Minneapolis Public Schools. The court is asked in the lawsuit to make the using of taxpayer dollars toward this policy illegal.
“The left has highlighted this contract as a national model which makes it all the more dangerous to the rule of law because it again, strikes at the heart of constitutional and legal provisions that have been decades in the making in preventing racial discrimination, hiring and employment decisions,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The contract between Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) ended a 14-day strike in March with a policy that keeps minority teachers “exempted from district-wide layoff[s] outside seniority order.”
“Under the contract, teachers of color are exempt from defendant MPS’s seniority-based layoffs and reassignments, which means, when layoffs or reassignments occur, the next senior teacher who is not ‘of color’ would be laid off or reassigned,” the lawsuit stated. “In addition, the contract mandates that defendants reinstate teachers of color over more senior teachers who are not ‘of color.’”
MFT, Minneapolis Public Schools and Cox did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
