LIFO on PBS

Speaking of the insanity of LIFO, PBS Newshour did an excellent 8-min segment on the LIFO and bumping controversy in.  It's the first time I've seen the superintendent there, Steven Adamowski, and I was very impressed (I've heard great things about the strides Hartford has made under his leadership).  Here's the video (www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june11/teacherlayoffs_05-09.html) and the transcript is below.  Here's the excerpt – the head of the union has some real doozies here:

JOHN TULENKO: For more than two years, Hartford Superintendent Steven Adamowski has been pushing to change seniority in the teachers' contract.

STEVEN ADAMOWSKI: Every student has a right to the most qualified teacher available and not the most senior teacher. I think that there is a growing realization that this is the emerging civil rights issue of our time.

MAN: We talked about this before.

JOHN TULENKO: But seniority has defenders.

ANDREA JOHNSON, Hartford Federation of Teachers: Experience has to count for something.

JOHN TULENKO: Andrea Johnson heads the Hartford Federation of Teachers.

ANDREA JOHNSON: If you were going to have an operation, I'm sure you would want the doctor with the most experience and the most time in the surgery to be your doctor. That's the way we look at teachers.

And I need to ask you about your latest grievance.

JOHN TULENKO: Johnson's union has rejected appeals from the district to base staffing decisions in part on teacher performance.

ANDREA JOHNSON: Children come to us as they come to us. We're just part of an equation. You have teachers. You have children. You have families. You have poverty. You have very disruptive situations within our country. It all mixes together.