By Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — On the heels of California’s landmark court decision striking down teacher tenure laws, state Sen. Joe Kyrillos said Wednesday he planned to introduce similar tenure reforms for New Jersey.
Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) said he would introduce a measure today calling for the end to last in-first out seniority protections, which a California judge declared unconstitutional. The bill would also require districts to adopt merit-based pay and allow principals the flexibility to assign teachers where they think the educators would be most effective.
Kyrillos proposed a similar measure (S2171) in 2012 — just days after Gov. Chris Christie signed a tenure-reform law that included annual teacher evaluations and expedited the dismissal of teachers with tenure — but did not change seniority rules. The last in-first out protection prevents veteran teachers from being laid off before their less-experienced colleagues.
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