Judicial Watch files lawsuit against Minneapolis public schools over race-based layoff policy
The agreement exempts teachers who are part of an 'underrepresented population' from seniority-based layoffs
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Judicial Watch announced Tuesday it filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Minneapolis taxpayer over an agreement between the Minneapolis teachers union and Minneapolis school district to exempt "underrepresented populations" from seniority-based layoffs.
Earlier this year, to end a 14-day teacher strike, the Minneapolis Public Schools and Minneapolis Federation of Teachers reached an agreement that provided "protections for educators of color" from seniority-based layoffs.
"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," the agreement reads.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Minneapolis school teachers hold placards during the strike in front of the Justice Page Middle school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States on March 8, 2022. ((Photo by Kerem Yucel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images))
The agreement has come under harsh criticism from education experts and lawyers, who said it violates the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act, and will create animosity within the school system.
Both the school district and the teachers union have doubled down on the agreement, saying it is designed to remedy past discrimination on the part of the school, and is just one step in increasing diversity among the district staff.
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"To remedy the continuing effects of past discrimination, Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) mutually agreed to contract language that aims to support the recruitment and retention of teachers from underrepresented groups as compared to the labor market and to the community served by the school district," a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Public Schools told Fox News Digital earlier this month in a statement.
"It is incredible that in this day and age a school system would engage in blatant racial discrimination in employing teachers," Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, told Fox News Digital. "The courts can’t move soon enough to shut down this extreme leftist attack on the bedrock constitutional principle that no one can be denied equal treatment under law on account of race."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Minneapolis school teachers hold placards during the strike in front of the Justice Page Middle school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States on March 8, 2022. ((Photo by Kerem Yucel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images))
Judicial Watch is filing the lawsuit against the superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, the Minneapolis Public Schools, and the Minneapolis Board of Education for violating the Equal Protection Guarantee of the Minnesota Constitution.
President of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Greta Callahan told GMA3 the policy doesn't go far enough, and blamed conservative media for ginning up a "non-story."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We need to retain our educators, especially those who are underrepresented," she said. "And this language does one tiny, miniscule step towards that, but doesn't solve the real crisis we're in right now."
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The Minneapolis Public Schools did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.