Wrong answer, its seniority

I was losing interest in this story up until the paragraph before last. Its about a teacher who was voted Teacher of the Year by the PTA, based on ratings by the students, but who will be laid off next year. The statement, by the school principal was the following:

"We've got a great teacher," Carpenter lamented, "and he's gone because of the budget problems."

This is exactly wrong. This teacher is being let go because of union rules forcing teachers with less seniority to be let go first. I'm going to come off as a cold, heartless bastard, but the teacher's union in California has destroyed our educational system, making it one of the worst in the country despite the huge amount of money that is spent on education every year (teachers salaries are the highest in the country, yet we consistenly rank near the bottom on test scores with states like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and New Mexico). As a father of two going through public schools now, its painful to see and hear this hypocrisy.