Layoffs are never easy. But sadly, sometimes they are necessary. When that is the case, isn't performance usually the most rational basis for deciding who keeps his job?
In Georgia, a reasonable bill has been proposed that would make performance - not seniority - the main factor in who stays and who goes when a school district lays off teachers.
That makes sense. Wages for government jobs are paid by taxpayers. As such, government has an obligation to taxpayers to give preference in hiring and firing decisions to the best-qualified employees.
Of course, in many cases, the best-qualified worker will also be the one who has been on the job the longest, and the proposed law in Georgia would not force out a highly qualified, experienced employee and keep a less qualified new employee.
But as Georgia Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan, D-Austell, pointed out in introducing the bill, "[T]hose decisions should be based on what is best for our kids, and that means keeping our most effective teachers in the classroom."
As in the private sector, government employment decisions should focus on demonstrated qualifications, not on protection of poorly qualified workers.