Teacher Bargaining Research Articles

Teacher Bargaining and School District Expenditures

Teacher Bargaining and School District Expenditures

The impact of collective bargaining for teachers on resource allocation in public school districts

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical evaluation of the impact of teacher bargaining on the demand for school inputs, the compensation of school personnel, and the level of educational expenditure in public school districts. It is demonstrated that the major impact of bargaining for teachers has been on a regional rather than on a district by district level, and, contrary to the results of previous studies, bargaining does appear to have a substantial and significant effect on teachers' salaries. The empirical analysis is carried out on a sample of public school districts located in the state of California.

Collective Bargaining and Conflict: Impacts on School Governance

This paper deals with the links between collective bargaining and the overall governance process in a school system. Through a detailed case study the dynamics of the relationships among superintendent, school board, and union are described, with a focus on conflict and how it cuts across bargaining and governance structures. Anthony M. Cresswell is Associate Professor of Education and Man agement and Director of the Labor Relations in Education Project at Northwestern University. Daniel Simpson is a student in the Educa tion Administration program at Northwestern University and a resi dent of the district described. 1. Part of this research was conducted through the Labor Relations in Education Project which is supported by the Ford Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. 2. See, for example, C. R. Perry and W. A. Wildman, The Impact o f Collec tive Negotiations in Public Education (Worthington, Ohio: C. A. Jones, 1967); D. Gerwin, ed., The Employment of Teachers (Berkeley: McCutchan, 1975). 3. M. W. Kirst, "After School Finance Reform: What Will Low Wealth School Districts Do With Unrestricted State Aid?" Stanford: School of Education, Stanford University, 1975 (mimeographed); J. G. Chambers, "The Impact of Collective Bargaining for Teachers on Resource Alloca tion in Public School Districts: The California Experience," paper pre sented at the Southern Economic Association Meeting, November 1975; D. B. Lipsky and J. B. Drotning, "The Influence of Collective Bargain ing on Teachers' Salaries in New York State," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 27, 1 (October 1973). 4. Some of these studies are: D. Hellriegel, W. French, and R. B. Peterson, "Collective Negotiations and Teachers: A Behavioral Analysis," In dustrial and Labor Relations Review 23, 3 (April 1970); M. J. Murphy and D. Hoover, "Negotiations at the Crossroads: Increased Profes sionalization or Reinforced Bureaucracy?" IAR Research Bulletin 14, 2 (February 1974); A. M. Glasman and J. A. Belasco, "The Chapter Chairman and School Grievances," Industrial Relations 14, 2 (May 1975). 5. R. E. Walton and R. W. McKersie, A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965). 6. J. Dunlop, The Industrial Relations System (New York: Henry Holt, 1958), pp. 13-16. 7. N. W. Chamberlain and D. E. Cullen, The Labor Sector (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971), pp. 226-29. 8. See T. A. Kochan, "City Government Bargaining: A Path Analysis," Industrial Relations 14, 1 (February 1975), and, also, Perry and Wild man, The Impact of Collective Negotiations. 9. The importance of coalition formation in bargaining is reviewed by J. Z. Rubin and B. R. Brown in The Social Psychology of Bargaining and Negotiations (New York: Academic Press, 1975), pp. 64-80. 10. See D. Rogers, 110 Livingston Street (New York: Random House, 1968), and M. R. Berube and M. Gittell, Confrontation at Ocean Hill- Brownsville (New York: Praeger, 1969). 11. A. Rosenthal, Pedagogues and Power (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Univer sity Press, 1969); R. G. Corwin, Militant Professionalism (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970). 12. W. R. Hazard, "Collective Bargaining and School Governance," South- western University Law Review 5 (1973): 83-117; and L. G. Simon, "The School Finance Decisions: Collective Bargaining and Future Finance Systems," Yale Law Review 83, 3 (January 1973): 409-60. 13. L. H. Ziegler and M. K. Jennings, Governing American Schools (North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury, 1974); and L. lannaconne and F. W. Lutz, Politics, Power and Policy: The Governing of Local School Districts (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1970). 14. Iannaccone and Lutz, Politics, p. 175.

Community Participation and Teacher Bargaining: A Clash of Interests?

The basic premise of our discussion is that collective bargaining in education constitutes an exclusionary process when it comes to direct citizen participation. This exclusionary structure came into direct conflict with the movement for community control which was based on broad-range inclusionary process. First, there will be a review of two developments in the evolution of collective bargaining. Attention will concentrate on teacher organization and community alliances that existed in some urban centers prior to teacher unions becoming a power base in educational politics. An analysis then will be offered detailing how the demands of teacher unions and the movement for community control led to the erosion of parent/union cooperation. Second, an account of parent discontent with the present bargaining structure will be cited. Thirdly, to concretely illustrate the exclusionary nature of bargaining and the troubling issues being negotiated which are of general citizen concern, a brief analysis will be made of the 1975 teacher/board strike settlements in New York City and Boston. Finally, based on our first-hand experience with negotiations and a review of the evidence, we shall conclude by arguing for a radical alternative to the prevailing negotiations structure.

Canadian Reference Books

1. Blount, Gail, comp. Collective Bargaining in Canadian Education: An Annotated Bibliography. (OISE Bibliography Series, 1). Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1975. 38p. Index. $3.00. ISBN 0‐7744‐0114‐1. This bibliography of 180 items presents “as broad a coverage as possible of past, current, and future developments in collective bargaining, as it relates to Canadian education” (p. vii). The time scope is primarily the last five years; in effect, it updates and extends the Canadian Teachers' Federation Collective Bargaining for Teachers (Ottawa, 1971) and Hazel Roberts Collective Bargaining in Higher Education — A Bibliography (Ottawa, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada Library, 1974). There are eight sections that follow prefatory matter—professional involvement, history and development of teacher associations, teacher militancy, collective bargaining at elementary, secondary, and university levels, the various documents and legislation for each province, plus 4 bibliographies. Most of the provincial material deals with Ontario. All graphic forms are covered: books, research reports, theses and dissertations, pamphlets, periodicals, speeches, government documents, and ERIC reports as well as videotapes, Each has a clearly written indicative abstract of 50 to 100 words, and most items are in the OISE library (and consequently may be borrowed on OISE's terms [p. ix–x]). One deficiency: the bibliographic data does not contain pagination nor other collation information (except for periodical articles).

The Law and Collective Bargaining for Teachers

The Law and Collective Bargaining for Teachers