Mayor Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and the other "education reformers" feel that ending the policy of Last In First Out (LIFO) when it comes to teacher layoffs is the crucial piece to improving public education. LIFO is the practice of having junior teachers be the first to face the ax when jobs are cut, while those with the most seniority are kept. They claim that LIFO will force cities to lay off good young teachers, while those with more experience remain even if they don't deserve to. Therefore they are pressuring legislatures that ending LIFO is the absolute and only answer to seniority reform. However, there are some holes in their argument that should be pointed out.
First, at least in New York, many young teachers come from programs like Teach For America