American businesses are increasingly concerned about the ability to compete in a global economy.  Incorporating incentives to bring the most qualified and experienced people into the teaching profession, particularly in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, could begin to reverse noted declines in our students’ performances on international benchmarks and return our nation to a place of educational prominence.  It may seem obvious, but why hasn’t this happened yet?

One of the perceived obstacles to doing so, and one of the most hotly debated topics in education today, is the issue of teacher contracts or collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).  Many people (including some superintendents and principals) argue that the biggest barrier to implementing necessary reforms to their schools is the restrictive nature of these CBAs.  Among the proposed changes that encounter obstacles due to CBAs are merit pay programs, the removal of ineffective teachers, and teacher assignments.

On the other hand, many others (including some teachers and their unions) argue that those CBAs are the only thing standing in the way of having the rights of teachers trampled, and as such are an essential part of any healthy education system.  Among the protections that these CBAs are said to offer teachers are those against pay discrimination, maintaining important benefits, and job security in the face of the “arbitrary exercise of power by heavy-handed administrators,” to quote Diane Ravich board member of the Albert Shanker Institute of the American Federation of Teachers.

Certainly, while each side has some merits to their respective arguments, there is ultimately a lack of leadership espoused by all parties.  While decrying the lack of respect given to teachers in today’s education system, contracts treat them less like professionals and more like factory workers of the 1950’s.  And while superintendents and principals express frustration at not being able to make the best personnel decisions possible due to the strictures of tenure and other policies, a sampling of CBAs in the nation’s fifty largest school districts show substantial leeway to permit such activities is not being exercised.  Both sides are guilty of an occasional reluctance to do what is right in favor of doing what is popular and expedient.  As a result, neither side can truly claim a moral high ground when posited in terms of doing what is right by the students in a school instead of what is right by the adults in it. 

We expect to have a spirited session on this topic at our annual ICW Summit on Education and the Workforce in Philadelphia on October 20-22.  John Wilson, Executive Director of the National Education Association and Nelson Smith, President of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools will be discussing this issue.   Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of The Leadership Limbo: Teacher Labor Agreements in America's 50 Largest School Districts will be serving as the moderator.

Register for the Summit online today!