GOP proposal means big changes for teacher contracts

[irishbobcat]

The GOP and SB5....hurting more middle Americans.....and making their jobs more like 8 dollars and hour jobs...
"Do you want fries with your Algebra?"

GOP proposal means big changes for teacher contracts
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As funding cuts loom, schools need contract flex, advocates say
Sunday, February 13, 2011  02:59 AM
By Jim Siegel

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

With years of experience assisting school boards in negotiating teacher contracts, Van Keating finds plenty to like about a new Republican-backed effort to weaken the bargaining power of teachers unions.

School officials know most of their expenses are salaries covered by collective-bargaining deals that can be difficult to change. They also hear the warnings from state elected leaders that the next two-year budget could contain cuts of 10 to 20 percent.

"You need changes in collective bargaining if you want schools to deal with a 10 percent funding cut and optimize their efforts," said Keating, director of management services for the Ohio School Boards Association.

"It's a big issue when you look at how much of that budget is controlled by the contract. Unions have always taken the viewpoint that they are not going to give anything unless they get something. Schools these days can't give them very much at all."

But teachers unions question why, after counting only 27 strikes in the 27 years since Ohio's collective-bargaining law was enacted, there is a sudden need to dismantle it.

"I'm not hearing the arguments of how this is going to improve education," said Sue Taylor, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers. "I think we can all read between the lines and see the real motivation in this is not what can help kids, but it's partisan flexing of muscles to bully the teachers in this state."

Senate Bill 5 was unveiled last week before a Statehouse crowd of more than 800 public union members looking to fight it. Sponsored by Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, and backed by GOP leadership, the bill would end collective bargaining for state workers and make a slew of changes at the local level.

Teachers are the largest group of more than 300,000 public workers in Ohio that would be directly affected by the bill.

"We believe the current collective-bargaining law is a good one and provides teachers with a voice," said Ron Rapp, director of governmental services for the Ohio Education Association.

Jones said the goal is to provide flexibility for school leaders and sustainability and transparency for taxpayers. Her bill would affect teachers in several ways.

Step increases
Teacher contracts settled in 2010 contained base-salary increases averaging 1.6 percent, according to the School Boards Association. This includes a number of short-term freezes.

But in addition to changes to the base salary, many teachers also get automatic pay raises for years of service and additional education. Jones has proposed eliminating these step increases from state law - although it is unclear how that would immediately affect contracts, considering teacher salaries today are high enough that no district is required to follow the law's step index.

"We believe that would have a negative impact on teachers," Rapp said. "Districts could decide to pay teachers whatever they chose to pay them."

Taylor said the change would "run teachers out of Ohio, and as professionals continue to leave this state, it weakens the middle class and means fewer jobs."

She added: "This is going to totally lower the bar for everyone in this state."

Keating said teachers view the expensive salary indexes as "God-given." "It's probably going to take something that big (taking it out of the law) to undo the situation schools have with salary schedules."

Step increases can boost a teacher's pay by 2 to 4 percent a year on top of any negotiated base-salary increase. Contracts generally grant annual steps through the 11th year of employment, and the vast majority of districts have added more.

Jones says these steps contribute to an unsustainable trajectory of increased costs. She did not provide specific numbers.

Keating said base-salary increases should be inflationary, and the steps should be the true pay raises, but unions have not viewed it that way. "Teachers say their raise is on the base salary. So they say they want a 4 percent raise instead of 2 percent."

Health insurance
The bill would remove health insurance from collective bargaining and would require workers to pay at least 20 percent of the cost.

"The concern is you force teachers into a specific plan and they don't have choices," Rapp said.

Keating said health insurance "makes collective bargaining a mess," and "If they took it out of bargaining, it would probably make the economics for schools easier to manage."

Moving the employee cost to 20 percent appears to be a significant increase for most teachers. The 2010 annual report from the School Employee Health Care Board found that employees paid an average of 9 to 10 percent.

Layoffs
Under current law, when a district wants to do layoffs, they start with teachers who are least-experienced. Critics say this ignores teacher performance, the needs of the district, and the fact that more teachers must be laid off to meet savings goals because newer teachers are paid less.

"Economically, it can have a huge impact if you have to start from the bottom and work your way up," Keating said.

Randy Flora, director of education policy for the Ohio Education Association, said the union is working on creating an evaluation system. He sees the bill giving management "unilateral power" that doesn't improve teaching.

Pension pickups
The bill no longer would allow districts to pay part of an employee's share of pension costs.

"It was always viewed as hiding a raise," Keating said. "Once you do it, you never get it back out, and it quickly becomes a forgotten benefit by the union."

Sick days
The bill would eliminate from state law a guaranteed 15 sick days a year for teachers. The number of sick days would be negotiated instead.

Rapp said guaranteed sick days are important. "You are around sick kids all the time, so you pick up everything."

Keating noted that many teachers are able to accumulate 200 or more unused sick days and a portion of those, usually one-third or less, are paid upon retirement.

"When you negotiate with them, you find out it has little to do with how sick they plan to be, and more to do with how much severance they can get out of the school," Keating said.

Strikes
The bill would not ban teacher strikes but could turn them into empty threats.

It would allow school districts to hire permanent replacement workers. It also would end continuing contracts for teachers. Put those together, and it appears a school board would not be required to hire back teachers who go on strike. Jones has said they would have to get in line.

"It takes away the careful balance in the law," said Matthew Dotson, an attorney with the Ohio Education Association.