November 19, 2009
Dear Members,
The state Senate passed the Education Reform Act of 2009 by a vote of 28 to 11 on November 17, adopting crucial MTA-supported amendments that help promote meaningful involvement on the part of educators in assisting underperforming schools and preserve collective bargaining and due process rights.
The state House of Representatives will hold off on considering the bill until January.
We have won major improvements to the bill, but the battle is not over yet! Changes are needed to protect our rights and to ensure that the bill will work.
Please visit http://www.capwiz.com/nea/ma/issues/alert/?alertid=14330211&type=ST where you can e-mail your representatives. Please do this as soon as you can. It is vital for educators to contact their representatives even though the House has postponed action until the new year. We must ensure that key Senate provisions added to the bill as a result of MTA advocacy are retained, and we need to win additional changes, particularly with regard to new provisions about Horace Mann charter schools.
As they considered the bill, senators adopted two very important amendments – one that protects our collective bargaining rights in schools designated to be underperforming and another that protects teachers from being terminated at will in underperforming schools. Earlier versions of the bill would have given superintendents virtually dictatorial authority to:
· Unilaterally alter or abrogate our collective bargaining agreements without negotiations.
· Terminate the entire faculty and staff in an underperforming school without due process.
MTA members made a huge difference in this process, sending more than 7,000 e-mails to legislators, as well as making phone calls and joining MTA lobbyists in lobbying legislators face to face.
We applaud all of you for this effort, but continued action is crucial. We need to keep making our voices heard between now and when the House takes up the legislation. When you contact your state representative, ask her or ask him to support the MTA-supported amendments listed below that passed in the Senate and the MTA-supported amendment on Horace Mann charter schools. A ready-to-send e-mail is available through the link on the MTA Web site, www.massteacher.org. and http://www.capwiz.com/nea/ma/issues/alert/?alertid=14330211&type=ST
Key Amendments
One extremely important amendment to the bill was introduced by Senator Ken Donnelly (D-Arlington). It says that if a change is proposed in a collective bargaining contract as part of a turnaround strategy for an underperforming school, the local union and school committee must bargain for 30 days. If no agreement is reached, an expedited final-and-binding arbitration process is required. That amendment passed 35 to 4.
Another vital amendment, introduced by Senator Gale Candaras (D-Wilbraham), prevents teachers in underperforming schools from being fired at will. An earlier version of the bill would have allowed the superintendent to fire the entire faculty and staff in an underperforming school without due process. This amendment was passed on a voice vote. The amendment will prevent teachers in underperforming schools from being dismissed without cause and will protect their due process rights.
Another amendment was passed to change the process for approving Horace Mann schools. Before waiving or changing provisions of a collective bargaining, the amendment requires agreement to a memorandum of understanding by a majority of teachers in an existing school building that is being converted to a Horace Mann school. For a new school where there is no faculty in place, however, the superintendent is given the power to waive provisions of the contract unilaterally. MTA is working to include language in the House version of the bill that makes clear that if provisions in the contract are changed there must be an agreement with the union before a Horace Mann charter is granted.
Please visit www.massteacher.org regularly for updates and advocacy materials, and encourage other members to do the same. Your continued action is crucial to ensure these amendments are kept, and one on Horace Mann schools added, when the House considers the education bill.
Sincerely,
Lou St. John
1 comment:
Do people realize that if this legislation passes, that they could be out of a job no matter what their evaluations say? Please contact your legislators and help get our voices heard! As a teacher, I shouldn't be blamed for all the wrongs of society and held accountable. As a parent, i am involved in my child's education as others should be, and feel I should be held accountable for my child's behavior. We need to remember when we point a finger, three more point back.
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