Chicago Public School Board Negotiation

As the 1990’s approached Ann Richards the democratic gubernatorial nominee wins the governor’s race. Democrats are in control of the Texas legislature and confront a federal court ruling that called for educational funding to across Texas to be equalized. The issue of funding education remains a problem thought the early democratic 90’s to the early Republican 2000s.

Over the years unions have provided many benefits to union workers through collective bargaining. One of the biggest union forces in the United States is the teachers union. With almost close to 5 million members nationwide, the teachers union is one of the most powerful unions. Through collective bargaining, problems have been created for the public school system which takes place at local school districts; rules have been imposed to create ineffective forms of organization at schools. The rules that are currently in place by collective bargaining are also creating a big disconnection with many public schools, that being the interest of the children. The teachers union is one main role

Simple arithmetic is not an easy task. Just like some students have difficulties with basic mathematics skills, so does the Superintendent. This is not to say that the Superintendent cannot do basic math. What this is really comparing is the challenging undertaking involved in counting four out of seven votes in favor of the Superintendent 's recommendations. Swaying back and forth for Board votes is timely and very hard to accomplish, but it is an essential part of the job. Sharp and Walter (2004) explain board members have no authority as individuals. However, together or as a majority they can be extremely powerful in making policy. Longer tenures and more efficient working

The Chicago Board of Education meets once a month to discuss issues relevant to Chicago Public Schools, entertain public comments, and make policy and fiscal decisions. Often times the Board meeting is held at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) central office at 10 a.m. However, both the timing and location of the meeting on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 differed. The meeting was held at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy High School at 4:30 p.m. Gwendolyn Brooks is located on the far south side of Chicago. Hosting the meeting at a CPS school has both positives and negatives. By bolding the meeting at a school it allows for a less formal atmosphere in addition to providing the opportunity to showcase some of the beautiful properties CPS possesses. However, this particular school is not easily accessible by public transportation. This may cause a problem for some stakeholders that would like to participate in the school board meeting. Furthermore, 4:30 in the afternoon is an awkward time for a meeting as it is more difficult to find childcare during the evening hours. Additionally, finding details regarding this meeting was not easy. After a search was conducted on the CPS website, there was no mention of the board meeting. Once redirected to the Chicago Board of Education Site, information regarding the location of the meeting was supplied. However there wasn’t a visible start time or information regarding if the meeting was being broadcasted on a local

Why do we need Chicago Teacher Unions? All they do is help the teachers create a contract and help them get paid a good sum of money. There are multiple reasons why we need Teacher Unions in multiple manners. The Chicago Teacher Union do not only help the teachers create contracts but protect not only the teachers but the students, from being taken advantage of by the Board of Education. Teacher Unions are an important step in a compromise for teachers’ rights and building safer conditions not only for them, but students as well through its access of striking together the support of other unions, and political action. Opponents believe that unions are bad because these organizations protect the workers that are not doing their job. Opponents

Some students wanted to protest and “others wanted to march on over to the next school board meeting to demand that students be included in the reform efforts and have votes on major policy issues that involved our conversion to smaller schools. Still others wanted vaguely to “fight the power.”(Koppelman, p. 308-309)

The Texas AFT wants to influence the legislator because the school districts have been left to try to make up for inadequate state aid by raising local tax rates, even as the state has continued to make it much harder for them to accomplish this. Basically, all they want to do is handle the budget crisis in the school districts of Texas. To analyze the successes and failures of Texas AFT in influencing legislation is short and sweet; school systems are still under budgeted and local taxes are still being raised to help the schools. The only break educators have received was in 2006 with “surplus” dollars tax swap for which the bill is now belatedly coming due.

In the early chapters of Special Interest Terry Moe spends much of his energy in attacking the power of the teacher unions. He claims that teachers unions are the heart of the problem when it comes to organization and reform (Moe, 2011, p. 20). While Moe claims the NEA (National Education Association) and the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) have historically lobbied against many reform programs, including voucher programs, charter schools, and merit pay programs, there is also evidence where teachers’ unions have supported new reforms. They have introduced new charter schools and have based salaries on merit pay programs. Former NEA president Bob Chase delivered a speech in 1997 claiming that the NEA was on the forefront of education reform. He stated that the NEA invested 70 million dollars on reform initiatives and sponsored six charter schools across the country (Chase, 1997, p. 372). Educational policy makers should be in particular interest to these examples especially if they believe in the effectiveness of reform programs. If policy makers understand the thinking behind why the unions support or oppose reforms, better policies can be put in place. In addition, policy makers in partnership with the teachers unions can work hand in hand to successfully coordinate reforms in American education.

According to the Chicago Suntimes, the article “Illinois Public-Employee Union Members Vote To Authorize Strike”, the author John O’Connor reports tens of thousands of government workers starts a strike against governor Bruce Rauner. The main reason for the strike was caused by two-year budget cut. There is a big difference between first term governor’s budget and current governor’s current budget. Since the last year’s contract expired in June 2015, “ Rauner wants a four-year wage freeze, increased employee contributions to maintain current health coverage, and a 40-hour workweek instead of a 37 ½-hour one”(Connor). Therefore, the Illinois Public-Employee Union wants to protects employees’ right.

In my position as a union leader, I have seen teachers fight tirelessly for these causes. Also in this position, I have worked with teachers who do not understand that the role of unions as well as the relationships that they have with their districts must change to survive. This change in relationship status must be made by both the union as well as the district their teachers serve. I am lucky to be a part of union and district that understands this need for change. I have witnessed a shift in the mentality of the people I work with. Someday, I would like to play a role in other districts changing their “us against them” mentality by taking what I have learned about empowering teachers; the people who play the biggest role in educating students and giving them a bigger say in how our students are

On September18th, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to end its strike. After seven days of rumbustious protects, the CTU accepted the suggestions made by the city of Chicago. And there are many things we can think about through this strike.

For the second time in almost 4 years, over 350,000 Chicago Public School Students may not be able to go to school because of the CTU Strike that is currently in progress today (The Washington Post). The issue between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools has not been solved yet due to disagreements about the income received. The Chicago Teachers Union has made offers to school administrations; however, the responses were not in their favor. The union has been in progress of agreeing on a contract “since November 2011, [and the strike that occurred at the time] was the first to hit the Windy City in 25 years” (Liebelson). The issue must have erupted due to a misconception or a realization of problems occurring. Chicago Teachers Union choosing to strike does not affect charter schools since they are not a part of Chicago Public Schools. The issue of school strikes can be fixed by increasing the budgets and providing useful resources to teachers in order to improve the level of education.

Without negotiation being intact it is almost impossible to resolve any conflicting issue that may occur, especially in education. It is believed that when dealing with Negotiation in Education, the “phenomenon of negotiations in the ‘public’ education sector has been ‘gaining’ increasing importance, as opposed to negotiation in private education” (Staub). The reason for this accuracy may be due to the amount of conflicting issues that occur in public education such as financial funding, educational laws (No Child Left Behind), the differentiated educational philosophy that s is being implemented into one setting. In order to minimize the conflicting issues that continues to grow, the overall authority ruler or leader should perhaps voice everyone’s opinion rather than detached their educational belief to that of their practice. Staub believes that “the role of the Superintendent in teacher negotiations should be implemented sporadically throughout the public school system” (Staub).

Since only 13 states are still allowed to strike and 60 percent of the strikes in the last ten years have been in Pennsylvania, the best solution to school striking is to make it illegal (Lange). In order for this to be possible, changes would need to occur in the way schools are run now in Pennsylvania. When teachers feel that they deserve a pay raise, they need to talk to their boss, who is unreachable. This person also does not understand what the teachers do. Their head boss often do not go to college for education. Instead, they major in business. This person does not make for a good person for the teachers to talk to. They do not realize what these teachers do for their students and often never even see the teachers teach. They look at

Whether it is at work, church or in our private relationships, negotiations are a necessary tool for reaching an agreement. They are made by discussing each parties point of view with the aim being to reach an agreement that is mutually beneficial. For the most part, negotiation is the process by which those people involved successfully adopt or abandon their respective position through the use of positional bargaining. There are different types of approaches for the negotiation process - some hard and others soft in their manner of approach. The desired outcome of