Flame Held To Firing Policy

Last-in, first-out layoff policies hit some schools harder than others

The Oakland school district has sent layoff warnings to more than one-fifth of its teaching staff. It was an extreme step, and school officials say they took it to prepare for an extreme budget scenario: the loss of as much as $900 in state funding per student, or $30 million. The threat of layoffs left few schools in the district untouched, but it hit some much harder than others. Like most districts, Oakland uses the "last-in, first-out" rule to determine who will keep their jobs in a time of financial uncertainty. This means schools with newer teachers stand to be more deeply affected by layoffs than those staffed by veterans. No place illustrates this phenomenon more clearly than Futures Elementary, a new school with a 93 percent poverty rate in one of Oakland's most violent neighborhoods.