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Council approves proposal to expand bargaining law
CTA's State Council of Education put its efforts to professionalize teaching on a fast track at its October meeting in Los Angeles.
 CTA President Wayne Johnson, Vice President Barbara E. Kerr(middle) and Secretary-Treasurer David A. Sanchez(bottom) address Council.
Proposed legislation to open the bargaining law and make it possible to negotiate professional decision-making procedures and programs that support teaching and learning - rather than just wages, hours and benefits - was processed by Council's Negotiations Committee and Legislative Committee, and was approved on the Council floor before the weekend meeting ended. The next step is to find a legislator willing to introduce the bill.
 Under current law, teachers (through their exclusive representatives) are allowed to consult with school boards over the definition of educational objectives, the determination of course content and curriculum, and the selection of textbooks to the extent that such matters are within the discretion of school districts. "However, all too often, administrators and school boards interpret this as a mandate to entertain but not seriously consider or act upon teacher proposals," says CTA President Wayne Johnson. "Because the process of consulting so rarely gets results, most CTA chapters no longer bother with it."
 CTA is proposing to delete the authority to consult and substitute instead language requiring districts to negotiate the procedures whereby professional educational decisions will be made.
In other professions, the practitioners make most of the important decisions about the strategies they use to discharge their responsibilities as well as which available resources they use to accomplish the tasks. Teachers, however, are precluded from using this professional approach because they lack the necessary authority.
"If we are going to be held accountable for the education of our children, and make no mistake about it, we are, then we need to bargain curriculum rather than having it shoved down our throats by some deputy superintendent who doesn't have a clue," says Johnson. "We need to bargain anything that affects our classroom and our ability to teach."
 Negotiations Committee member Sheila Turner-Quintana presents the proposal to expand the bargaining law at State Council. Questioning her are State Legislation Committee Chair Jack Caselles (top right and below left), Vice Chair Mary Ann Pacheco and CTA Board member Paula Caplinger.
CTA is not proposing that teachers should, for example, negotiate the actual adoption of a textbook. Instead, says Johnson, "we want to negotiate the process and the programs that are used by the school district and, where appropriate, by the school site, related to professional decisions. This will enable teachers and school boards to devise meaningful agreements in the interest of improving the quality of education."
School boards, he says, would still have the authority to exercise their legal responsibilities and views, but they would do so through agreements with teachers on professional issues.
Among the items that would be open for negotiation under CTA's proposed legislation are procedures for disciplining students, measuring student performance, selecting textbooks and instructional materials, developing educational standards, developing curriculum, using support services, creating a learning environment, assessing accountability, devising intervention methods, maintaining facilities and furthering professional development.
Trudy Stephenson Willis
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