Monthly Archives: June 2012

Wisconsin Postmortem: More on Teachers, Unions, and Where It's All Headed

Yesterday I shared some thoughts about the current and coming changes to public education labor relations and the teaching profession. And since Gov. Scott Walker did indeed pull out a convincing win last night in Wisconsin, interest in the topic remains strong. State Budget Solutions has put together a great brief highlighting why current government collective bargaining models need to be reformed, something that mirrors what my Education Policy Center friends produced last year as a guide for local changes in Colorado. All this raises the need for a few more important points to be addressed:

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Wisconsin & Douglas County (CO): Key Moment for Professional Teaching, Reform?

So I hear there’s this little election going on in Wisconsin today. As is so often the case, the political happenings are closely connected to the issues of our public school system. One of the nation’s leading education reform voices, RiShawn Biddle, has written a two-part series (here and here) highlighting the dilemma centrist Democrats face regarding aggressive collective bargaining reforms like those advanced in Wisconsin by Governor Scott Walker. Biddle shines a big spotlight on the national implications of today’s likely Walker victory for the future politics of education reform. You really need to read both pieces in their entirety. But in this passage he really drives the point home:

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What Will High-Paying Boulder Valley Get for Boosting New Teacher Salaries?

What if I told you the Colorado school district with the second-highest average teacher salaries just dramatically increased compensation for new hires and is still figuring out how to pay for it? A few days ago the Boulder Daily Camera reported that the Boulder Valley School District agreed to boost starting teacher salaries to one of the state’s highest, increased by 17 percent from $34,192 to $40,000 (H/T Complete Colorado). As the article explains, that figure is for teachers who hold a bachelors degree. Such an across-the-board pay increase certainly represents a nice gesture from the district. For teachers with extra credentials, it gets even higher: For Boulder Valley, the major changes are the $40,000 starting salary and incentives to earn advanced degrees. A master’s degree, for example, would bump a starting teacher’s salary up to about $51,000. That’s an even bigger jump from the current starting MA salary of $36,927. The question for BVSD officials is what will they get for their money?

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School's Out, But Douglas County Summertime Happenings Worth Watching

School is out… Hooray!!! But in Douglas County, Colorado’s third-largest school district and a true hotspot of education reform, the summer months still give us plenty to which we can look forward. First, this month of June represents the final 30 days before the collective bargaining contract with the Douglas County Federation of Teachers (DCFT) expires. What happens after that, no one knows. It’s going to look much different, though, that’s for sure. Groundbreaking open negotiations kicked off there more than seven weeks ago. I applauded the bold proposals set forth by the Douglas County school board, some of which also caught the favorable attention of Denver Post columnist Vincent Carroll. Previously, my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow had raised the question of how serious DCFT was about embracing open union negotiations. Transparency has seemed to suit everyone just fine, even as a few hundred teachers showed up at the last session to send a statement. It’s good to listen to the voice of teachers. Especially the best teachers. And an organization doesn’t necessarily have to be recognized by a government body as exclusive bargaining agent to ensure that happens. Are the teachers in Colorado’s 137 non-bargaining districts (as […]

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