Master Agreement, Part 3
The teacher's labor unions vehemently oppose merit pay, but the reasons go well beyond the fear of evil administrators or the inability to develop a "fair" evaluation system. The survival of the labor union depends on showing its members that it is the source of everything good that happens to them, and the defender against anything bad. The labor union has to make itself important, or it will cease to exist. (As was discussed earlier, it also has to force people to pay its wages). One of the reasons that labor union leaders are so adamantly opposed to reform is because all ideas must originate from within the union or its chosen board members or legislators. Even if a benefit were proposed from outside of the labor union circles, the union leadership would oppose it. If members thought that they could in any way improve their lot through any other channel than the union, why would they need the labor union?
The whole concept of merit pay strikes fear in the union leadership because it threatens the labor union's budget. If teachers get more pay for better work, then their own efforts increase their pay. If that was the case, then they would not need the union. If a poor performer gets less income than a high performer, and the union does not help the poor performer to earn as much as the high performer, then the poor performer does not need the union either. The key for the labor union is to ensure that pay is based strictly on the objective measures of time in service and college credits. No subjective inputs may ever be used.
Under the current system, individual teachers have no right to approach their bosses for a raise. All increases in salary must come through collective bargaining. The goal is to have all teachers feel that the only way to improve their lives is through the efforts of the union. Unfortunately, what teachers don't see is that this protective labor union that keeps all evil away also keeps the workers trapped inside.
In almost every "professional" occupation in the country, employers differentiate pay based on performance. Even in the extremely militant union occupations, such as International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the salary schedule allows workers to advance based on merit. Although the military also has a single salary scale, military members are under an "up or out" system, whereby performance and responsibility are required for promotions. You either qualify for promotion or you leave the service. You are required to perform for the promotion and accompanying pay raise. Why is the public school teaching occupation so unique and different that it is impossible to fairly judge the employees by their performance? Yes, that is a silly question - a question that labor union leaders won't answer.
The goal of school boards is to achieve maximum educational excellence in their districts. To reach that goal, they should differentiate between teachers to reward and encourage excellence in the classrooms. The D11 master agreement is the only obstacle preventing D11 from rewarding and encouraging good teachers. Some examples:
Article II E. - Addresses individual contracts with teachers. Explains that if there is any conflict between the master agreement and anything else in the world, the master agreement is the prevailing document. Bottom line is that no teacher may ask for anything for him or herself without going through the labor union.
Article X B.9. - "Openings in all summer school positions shall be filled first by teacher applicants already employed by the District,"
What if the teacher stinks and a better teacher has applied who might be better? Too bad for the kids.
Article XII H 2. - If a teacher receives a bad evaluation, he or she has the right to a second opinion by another evaluator. That seems reasonable. However, the article states that, "The District evaluator will be selected by the teacher from a list of fifteen (15) evaluators generated by the Division Head of Human Resources."
What other field of employment allows an employee to determine, from a list of 15, who gets to give them their evaluation?
Article XIV D 2. - Moves teachers up in pay scale for graduate work, but never specifies the content of the course. Can a math teacher move up in pay for taking a graduate course in government policy? Yes. Can he move up in pay for being an excellent math teacher? No.
Article XVIII D. 3. - Allows teachers with more seniority to bump less senior teachers in case of layoffs. The administration does not get to choose to layoff poor performing senior teachers if the district has high performing junior teachers. The bad get to stay. Too bad for the kids.
Article XV - Deals with stipends. I have been told by unionites that differential pay is a bad thing because you cannot say that one course is more important than another. It is not fair, they say, to pay a math or science teacher more than a social studies teacher because it would make it seem that social studies is not important. First of all, this is not true. If you are paying a flat rate for teachers, and you are receiving good social studies instruction for that rate, but poor math instruction for the same rate, then something is wrong. It does not say that math is more important than social studies to suggest that you should pay more to attract highly qualified math instructors into your district. What it might say is that higher level math is more difficult to teach than is higher level social studies, and therefore you might need to attract someone with a deep math background to do the teaching. By worrying about this silly notion of "fairness," we aren't being fair to the students at all. Anyone who turns to Article XV will see that the labor union does not recognize its own standard of "fairness" in its own contract when it comes to stipends. The contract distinguishes between "band director" and "dramatics," yet it will not authorize the district to distinguish between a kindergarten teacher and a high school physics teacher. When it comes to stipends, the labor union allows a high school band director to receive 10.4% of base salary as a stipend, while a middle school band director only receives a 3.05% stipend. On the other hand, a high school orchestra director only receives a 5.2% stipend. Why is this position only half as important as the high school band director? Why does a head football coach receive a 13% stipend, while a head baseball coach only receives a 10.6% stipend? Are we being fair to these employees by placing different levels of importance on these different activities?
The labor union's excuse of "fairness" is a bogus and damaging hindrance to recruiting highly qualified teachers in certain disciplines. If the labor union allowed differential salaries, it would be opening the door to allowing teachers some semblance of independence from the union. The union leaders cannot allow that to happen.
The whole concept of merit pay strikes fear in the union leadership because it threatens the labor union's budget. If teachers get more pay for better work, then their own efforts increase their pay. If that was the case, then they would not need the union. If a poor performer gets less income than a high performer, and the union does not help the poor performer to earn as much as the high performer, then the poor performer does not need the union either. The key for the labor union is to ensure that pay is based strictly on the objective measures of time in service and college credits. No subjective inputs may ever be used.
Under the current system, individual teachers have no right to approach their bosses for a raise. All increases in salary must come through collective bargaining. The goal is to have all teachers feel that the only way to improve their lives is through the efforts of the union. Unfortunately, what teachers don't see is that this protective labor union that keeps all evil away also keeps the workers trapped inside.
In almost every "professional" occupation in the country, employers differentiate pay based on performance. Even in the extremely militant union occupations, such as International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the salary schedule allows workers to advance based on merit. Although the military also has a single salary scale, military members are under an "up or out" system, whereby performance and responsibility are required for promotions. You either qualify for promotion or you leave the service. You are required to perform for the promotion and accompanying pay raise. Why is the public school teaching occupation so unique and different that it is impossible to fairly judge the employees by their performance? Yes, that is a silly question - a question that labor union leaders won't answer.
The goal of school boards is to achieve maximum educational excellence in their districts. To reach that goal, they should differentiate between teachers to reward and encourage excellence in the classrooms. The D11 master agreement is the only obstacle preventing D11 from rewarding and encouraging good teachers. Some examples:
Article II E. - Addresses individual contracts with teachers. Explains that if there is any conflict between the master agreement and anything else in the world, the master agreement is the prevailing document. Bottom line is that no teacher may ask for anything for him or herself without going through the labor union.
Article X B.9. - "Openings in all summer school positions shall be filled first by teacher applicants already employed by the District,"
What if the teacher stinks and a better teacher has applied who might be better? Too bad for the kids.
Article XII H 2. - If a teacher receives a bad evaluation, he or she has the right to a second opinion by another evaluator. That seems reasonable. However, the article states that, "The District evaluator will be selected by the teacher from a list of fifteen (15) evaluators generated by the Division Head of Human Resources."
What other field of employment allows an employee to determine, from a list of 15, who gets to give them their evaluation?
Article XIV D 2. - Moves teachers up in pay scale for graduate work, but never specifies the content of the course. Can a math teacher move up in pay for taking a graduate course in government policy? Yes. Can he move up in pay for being an excellent math teacher? No.
Article XVIII D. 3. - Allows teachers with more seniority to bump less senior teachers in case of layoffs. The administration does not get to choose to layoff poor performing senior teachers if the district has high performing junior teachers. The bad get to stay. Too bad for the kids.
Article XV - Deals with stipends. I have been told by unionites that differential pay is a bad thing because you cannot say that one course is more important than another. It is not fair, they say, to pay a math or science teacher more than a social studies teacher because it would make it seem that social studies is not important. First of all, this is not true. If you are paying a flat rate for teachers, and you are receiving good social studies instruction for that rate, but poor math instruction for the same rate, then something is wrong. It does not say that math is more important than social studies to suggest that you should pay more to attract highly qualified math instructors into your district. What it might say is that higher level math is more difficult to teach than is higher level social studies, and therefore you might need to attract someone with a deep math background to do the teaching. By worrying about this silly notion of "fairness," we aren't being fair to the students at all. Anyone who turns to Article XV will see that the labor union does not recognize its own standard of "fairness" in its own contract when it comes to stipends. The contract distinguishes between "band director" and "dramatics," yet it will not authorize the district to distinguish between a kindergarten teacher and a high school physics teacher. When it comes to stipends, the labor union allows a high school band director to receive 10.4% of base salary as a stipend, while a middle school band director only receives a 3.05% stipend. On the other hand, a high school orchestra director only receives a 5.2% stipend. Why is this position only half as important as the high school band director? Why does a head football coach receive a 13% stipend, while a head baseball coach only receives a 10.6% stipend? Are we being fair to these employees by placing different levels of importance on these different activities?
The labor union's excuse of "fairness" is a bogus and damaging hindrance to recruiting highly qualified teachers in certain disciplines. If the labor union allowed differential salaries, it would be opening the door to allowing teachers some semblance of independence from the union. The union leaders cannot allow that to happen.
posted by Craig Cox | 1:22 PM
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