Metro

Gov: Merit should count on teacher layoffs

Gov. Cuomo said yesterday he’ll consider overhauling the “last in, first out” law mandating that teacher layoffs be conducted by seniority and not competence.

Cuomo, in his most detailed comments on the issue, said he agreed with Mayor Bloomberg that merit should be part of any evaluation that determines which teachers stay or go in a budget crisis.

“In terms of ‘last in, first out,’ the mayor’s point is there should be a different decision-making process than just seniority. I think there is receptivity to the point that there should be objective, fair criteria that don’t penalize seniority, but also understand that there are other criteria to take into consideration,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo and legislative leaders are considering giving the mayor authority to ax some 1,000 non-teaching teachers — including those with shoddy records — without following LIFO.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg met with 15 teachers who belong to Educators 4 Excellence, which advocates for recently hired teachers and supports replacing LIFO with merit-based evaluations.

“I was glad to meet with [E4E] and listen to their views. We have the best teachers in America — they want to be respected, treated as professionals, and judged based on the quality of their work,” Bloomberg said.

“The ‘last in, first out’ rule is bad for kids and needs to be changed.”

After the meeting, E4E co-founder Evan Stone said “the mayor made clear that he will fight for the interest of great teachers and students.”

fredric.dicker@nypost.com