This "controversy" is yet another irrelevant distraction. There is a teacher shortage. Teachers should not be getting laid off at all right now unless they are doing a bad job, regardless of race. Teachers are underpaid, unsupported, and they are leaving in droves. You can make more at McDonalds than teaching in my town, and with far less hassle. Teachers are expected to handle discipline problems, buy supplies for poor students out of their already meager paychecks, deal with irate idiot parents, deal with COVID, and somehow teach real information in addition to spoon feeding the answers to standardized tests so that their paychecks that are tied to said tests don't get any lower. With class sizes approaching 40 kids, teachers are basically becoming babysitters, and their role as that because very apparent during the pandemic.
In a modern specialized world, education is THE most important thing. The USA has been so successful because inventions and innovations happened here. What things will a population that can barely read, has no critical thinking skills, and can't tell fact from lies, invent to compete with countries that do fund education?