Educators for Excellence (E4E) Celebrates Significant Win in the MA Legislature’s FY25 Budget

Following rigorous advocacy over the past year, the MA Legislature adopts a study of the impacts of layoffs on high-quality, diverse educators

BOSTON, MA / July 19, 2024 – Today, the Massachusetts Legislature adopted its FY 2025 budget, including a critical amendment that requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to study the impacts of layoffs on high-quality, diverse educators. The legislative win by Educators for Excellence – Massachusetts (E4E-MA) follows a years-long push by the organization to improve upon the state’s seniority-based layoff policy, known as “Last in, First Out,” otherwise known as LIFO.

The inclusion of the amendment in the final budget is a clear response to E4E – MA’s advocacy to urgently address the impacts of status quo teacher layoff policies on student success and the teachers best equipped to meet their needs. In the wake of ongoing layoffs of teachers across the Commonwealth–including the largest school districts of Boston and Worcester–student outcomes are at risk, as diverse, high-quality, earlier career educators are the first to be let go under LIFO.

“We are grateful for the legislature’s recognition of the urgency of this moment,” said Lisa Lazare, Executive Director of E4E-Massachusetts. “Their decision to study the impacts of current layoff policies on teacher quality and diversity shows a commitment to improving outdated policies that no longer serve our students. This is a significant win for educators across the Commonwealth and a crucial step toward protecting the high-quality, diverse educators we have worked hard to recruit in recent years.”

The study comes after Representative Priscila Sousa (D – Framingham) filed a budget amendment later passed by the House as part of their version of the budget approved in April. Senator Pavel Payano (D – Lawrence), later introduced the amendment in the Senate version of the budget, where it was then removed for consideration in Conference Committee budget negotiations between the House and Senate. Following continued advocacy from E4E-MA, the negotiated final budget included the amendment as part of the Committee’s version released today.

The amendment requires DESE to conduct a study of the impacts of teacher layoffs on teacher diversity and quality over the 2023 – 2024 and 2024 – 2025 school years. Within the study, the Department must examine to what extent teachers of color were disproportionately laid off relative to their representation in the state’s teacher workforce overall. Additionally, the report must include data on teachers laid off who received an exemplary performance evaluation in the prior school year, as well as analyze the impact of layoffs on teachers who worked at schools with large numbers of high-needs students or low teacher retention. The results of the study, which will help illuminate the impacts of layoffs on high-quality earlier career teachers who are serving our most vulnerable students, is required to be delivered no later than October 2025.

The budget win comes after the introduction of an earlier bill, “An Act Enabling All Students to Thrive (S. 340 and H. 583)“, which sought to consider a variety of factors, such as the quality of an educator; whether they teach within a high-needs district; or hold linguistic proficiency in the predominant neighborhood language when districts face layoffs, in addition to LIFO when districts face layoff decisions. Though the bill was ultimately held along with a package of other bills on teacher diversity, legislators continued to agree that E4E-MA was highlighting an issue worth acting upon this session.

“As we await the findings from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s study, we will continue to fight for the protection of high-quality teachers of diverse cultural, racial, linguistic, and community-based backgrounds,” continued Lazare. “After months of hard work in bringing this issue to light, the legislature’s acknowledgment is a testament to the thousands of educators throughout the state who believe student success should always be the priority when weighing improvements upon the status quo.”

The final version of the budget awaits the Governor’s review and signature by the end of July.