Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 25, 1993 TAG: 9301250248
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBLEY S. JONES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
STATE TEACHERS MUST BE HEARD - COLLECTIVELY
"DEEPLY INGRAINED in our society is the belief that individuals can be trusted to make decisions for themselves and for the common good. This belief is the bedrock of the democratic political system. Increasingly, it is being adapted in business and industry as a means of involving employees in decisions about their work."Business managers find that empowering workers to decide on a wide range of issues affecting them increases their productivity, improves the quality of the work, and heightens their morale.
"Democratization may be entering the American workplace, but it has not yet penetrated American public education." - From a report on American education by the Carnegie Corporation of New York
SHARED DECISION-making is essential to the retention of good teachers. It is an integral factor in maintaining high morale and a commitment to the shared goals of high performance and accountability.
School management makes a tragic mistake when it does not listen to teachers and other school personnel, a mistake that reduces the ability of our schools to do their best in serving the children of the commonwealth.
Psychologist Carl Rogers noted that each person sees the world through his or her own "separate reality," the unique system of beliefs and ideas which affects how each of us perceives the world around us. People who work in schools are no different: The view held by a principal about a particular situation can be very different from the view of a teacher, a custodian, the school nurse or a school board member. What can bring our perceptions and our understanding closer together is the opportunity to communicate on an ongoing, meaningful, direct level.
Many of our schools, like industry and other Western institutions, are structured much like the military. There are the strategists - the superintendents and upper administrative personnel. At the next layer are the tacticians - those who directly oversee the running of the schools - the principals and supervisors. Ultimately there are the foot soldiers - the teachers and other employees who have daily, direct contact with the students.
Military failures are too often the result of insufficient field intelligence or incorrect perceptions (Gen. Stuart's cavalry did not survey the lay of the land or Union troop strength at Gettysburg), or of the lack of willingness on the part of the strategists to listen to the tacticians and foot soldiers. (Longstreet told Lee it was suicidal to charge uphill against troops that were dug in, large in number and heavily supported by artillery.)
What can be done to guarantee that teachers and other school workers have a reasonable say in the operation of the state's public education system? The answer is simple: collective bargaining.
The laws in 34 states, including Tennessee and Maryland, now allow or require collective bargaining for teachers. The other 16 states have no law but at least eight have isolated bargaining situations. Four states prohibit bargaining. In Virginia and Georgia, it is prohibited by the court; in North Carolina and Texas it is prohibited by state statute.
A Virginia Supreme Court decision on Jan. 14, 1977, ended bargaining by public employees. The court's strict interpretation of the Dillon rule meant that without a permissive state statute, localities could not bargain. Before that date, Virginia's teachers did have an opportunity for input - a chance to be heard in a setting which required a dialogue.
I was fortunate to work for two school divisions, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, that retained a communications process - meet-and-confer - after the court forced them to do away with bargaining.
The discussions at the meet-and-confer table have covered a wide range of topics. All parties benefited from the sharing of perspectives and knowledge. When the employees' proposals did not prevail, we knew why. We appreciated the fact that our suggestions were given consideration, particularly when they were adopted, as in the case of a strategy to improve discipline in the schools and a proposal to reduce the use of sick leave.
This is the kind of collective-bargaining process we need in our state's public-education system.
A great deal of negative propaganda has been issued about collective bargaining. In fact, a carefully crafted law permitting collective bargaining for school employees would not usurp the power of local school boards.
Without question, any agreement arrived at through collective bargaining would have to be finalized by appointed and elected officials - school boards and governing bodies - through the funding process.
A collaborative process of discussion and compromise would not increase the chance of public-employee strikes, which are outlawed in Virginia. In fact, teacher strikes more often result from frustration over the absence of a workable process for consultation, as occurred in in 1989-90 in West Virginia, which, like Virginia, does not have public-employee bargaining. We seek a process for collaboration.
An assumption is frequently made that bargaining is only about employee's salaries and benefits. While those are issues of concern, teachers in Virginia would like to use the bargaining process to improve the education we provide to our students.
Bargaining would provide a forum where issues of instructional concern could be addressed. During recessionary times, the bargaining process can provide a viable method for determining the best use of scarce resources.
The bottom line is that the people who work directly with students in our schools have knowledge that must be considered if we are to improve our schools.
The best way to make sure that this knowledge is shared is through collective bargaining.
Robley S. Jones is president of the Virginia Education Association. Virginia Forum