It is encouraging that Rhode Island leaders are beginning to base their policies more on what serves public-school students than on what pleases powerful special interests. Latest is Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist’s order to school superintendents to abolish the practice of assigning teachers most heavily on the basis of seniority.

Those running the schools on the public’s behalf should be filling openings on the basis of what will most greatly benefit students, she said. What a concept! Ms. Gist said the new Basic Education Plan, passed by the Rhode Island Board of Regents under state law, requires such a focus on students.

Expressions of high dudgeon are coming from the expected quarters, of course.

“We’re going to court,” said Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers. “I’m startled that there was no conversation with the unions about this. I’m startled there were no public hearings, and I’m startled at the content. This narrows the scope of collective bargaining.”

Two points:

The harm caused by rigid seniority in teacher assignments has been discussed for years, even if Ms. Gist did not vet this particular interpretation of the Basic Education Plan with Ms. Reback or her cohorts over at the National Education Association. (We can imagine how that “conversation” would have gone!)

Ms. Reback’s primary concern is not the students themselves. One would not expect it to be, of course. But that’s the point. Ms. Reback is the very capable leader of an economic-interest group, like a business corporation, whose aim is to maximize profits. The teachers unions seek more money, power and fringe benefits, such as less work and bigger pensions. Other issues are secondary. (That is not to say that schoolteachers don’t want to help young people; of course they do!)

If the teachers’ unions fight in court against superintendents’ right to assign teachers, the state expects to prevail, said Regents Chairman Robert Flanders.

If Rhode Island does not prevail in such a battle, that will offer yet one more sign that state labor law is stacked heavily against the public interest and thus should be reformed. When it comes to the government (supposedly run by and for the public), key management prerogatives should not be part of collective bargaining. Meanwhile, the Regents and Ms. Gist deserve the public’s thanks for waging this battle on behalf of the state’s public-school students.