This is a copy of an email I received on Thursday, August 6th, 2009. There is some very strong language in here, but also sides to the story that I don’t personally know. If anyone can help fill in some blanks, that would be appreciated. What is specifically in the bill? What was the Sec’s response? What alternatives from the MTA and NEA were offered? How does this position affect our Readiness Advantage School proposal? Let’s gather information, think about our response and constructively discuss it here and at our next meeting. Thoughts?
Dear Colleague,
The Readiness Schools legislation developed by Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville and filed on July 17th with the Legislature should set off alarm bells throughout MTA and the larger labor movement. This bill, if passed in its current form, would strip our members of collective bargaining rights in Readiness Schools.
In establishing so-called Readiness Acceleration Schools, the Commissioner of Education would have the right to unilaterally “limit, suspend or change” all or part of our collective bargaining agreements. In other types of Readiness Schools, it is not clear from the legislation who would have the authority to change the terms of a contract, but it is clear that the collective bargaining process as we have known it would not apply.
This is a direct assault on our union and other local associations. It ignores the critical contributions our members and our union have made for over 160 years in helping to make Massachusetts schools among the best in the world. It treats us as the problem — which is a demonstrably false premise – rather than part of the solution. And it offers a so-called solution in the form of diminished bargaining rights, without any evidence that collective bargaining is an obstacle to the substantive school reform agenda. At the same time, it sets up a process doomed to fail because it does not provide teachers – the people who spend the most time with students and are in a position to know what is needed to improve results – a real voice in the process.
Collective bargaining is how we use our voice effectively, and it’s how we build consensus. It’s not always perfect, but it has worked for decades as a mechanism for resolving important issues at the local level. Secretary Reveille’s premise — that bargaining must be swept aside and replaced by another process in which educators are not full partners – ignores the fact that the best-performing schools in the state operate under collective bargaining agreements
We are committed to the need for new approaches to school reform to address the problems of chronically underperforming schools. Through lengthy and difficult discussions with Secretary Reville and his staff, the MTA offered alternatives that would ensure our members’ voices would be heard, but which would have made dramatic and unprecedented changes to collective bargaining as we have known it in order to foster rapid improvements. Secretary Reville gave those innovations the back of his hand.
In recent days, as the draft legislation was being prepared for filing, the MTA worked almost around the clock to seek modifications that would preserve our collective bargaining rights. the MTA enlisted the aid of top leaders at NEA and at the U.S. Department of Education, all of whom recognize that effective innovation and school reform can only be accomplished with us, it cannot be done to us. As U.S. Secretary of Arne Duncan said earlier this month in a speech to the NEA Representative Assembly, real reform can only happen when there are good relations between labor and management and when collective bargaining rights are respected. Almost everywhere he goes, Secretary Duncan points out that all the aggressive reforms he undertook as the head of the Chicago school system were accomplished within the existing collective bargaining agreements. Secretary Reville, by contrast, wants to insist on dictatorial authority rather than a cooperative approach.
Now that the bill has been filed, we have our work cut out for us. We must mobilize our members and defend our rights, or this could prove to be the beginning of the end of collective bargaining in our state. We will not rest until we have preserved our bargaining rights, and we are confident that you and your members will fight shoulder to shoulder with us for this fundamental principle. And, while securing our bargaining rights, we will work with equal determination to win effective school reform legislation that addresses the real problems at the root of chronically underperforming schools.
We’re serious about school reform and recognize that there are things in the bill worth fighting for. It begins to recognize poverty as a fundamental issue at the base of many problems facing our schools. It directs special attention where we can all agree it’s needed: toward the chronically underperforming schools. And it sets us on a course to receive significant federal funding to turn around schools and help our students. We support those aspects of the bill and will fight to keep them.
But there is nothing about these laudable goals that requires Secretary Reville to take an axe to our collective bargaining rights. So we must make sure collective bargaining is re-inserted into the process. Secretary Reville must learn, as Secretary Duncan already knows, that educators and their unions have a positive – and essential – role to play in school reform and innovation.
You can help our cause by contacting your legislators and voicing your opposition to this bill and by spreading the word to your colleagues about the enormous challenge we face and enlist them in the battle to preserve their voice in the workplace.
Lou
Here are some links (articles) I was able to find on this issue:
1. MTA Calls for Collaborative Model for Readiness Schools: http://www.massteacher.org/news/headlines/headlines_2009-07-17.cfm
2. Your Collective Bargaining Rights Are Threatened, Act Now! http://www.massteacher.org/news/headlines/headlines_2009-07-02.cfm
3. Gov. Patrick’s Readiness School Plan is Better than His Charter School Plan, But Still Problematic http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/823
4. Education Reform Legislation: Readiness Schools Package: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eoeterminal&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Legislation+%26+Policy&L2=Governor+Patrick%27s+Education+Reform+Package%3A+Turning+Around+Low-Performing+Schools+and+Promoting+Innovation+for+All&sid=Eeoe&b=terminalcontent&f=Filing_Letter_Readiness&csid=Eeoe
5. Legislation on Readiness Schools and Charter Schools: http://www.btu.org/PDF_08.09/Governor%27s%20Plan.pdf
About Administrator
Clearly, all stakeholders would agree that change is needed and the last thing any stakeholder will want is to have the DESE declare any school in our district an Acceleration school.