The Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) has launched a campaign to unionize the city's charter schools. The union made public records requests to area charter schools asking for teachers' names, years of experience, current salary, and other information, presumably in preparation for reaching out to the teachers about joining the union. Meanwhile, the CTU issued a newsletter to its current members advising them of its efforts. In the newsletter, CTU officials questioned why the district, as part of its Academic Transformation Plan, wants to turn over operations of some of its struggling schools to charter operators:????
What benefit would a district have in encouraging students to leave the public school system and let a charter school operator educate the district's children? What is in it for CMSD?
For starters, how about better-educated students?
Six of the top ten schools in Cleveland are charter schools. And the charter operators that the district wants to bring into its portfolio are among the best in the state. Take, for example, Citizens' Academy, which the district school board is considering authorizing. The school boasts outstanding academic achievement results year-in, year-out, and serves a population of students just as disadvantaged and academically challenged as the rest of the city.
How would a unionized teaching force impact the ability of a school like Citizens to continue its success?
As we pointed out in 2008's The Leadership Limbo, Cleveland has one of the most restrictive collective bargaining agreements in the country.???? The leader of an organized charter school there would be severely restricted in how they hire, reassign, and compensate their teachers. Parent-teacher conferences, before- and after-school tutoring, and other interactions that are vital to successful charter schools could be capped. Collaboration among the teaching staff, another hallmark of outstanding charters, would be difficult if staff meetings are restricted to one hour per month as they are in district schools.
But it's not all bad. Unionized charter teachers in Cleveland would reap some benefits ???????? like avoiding laying eyes on school lunches and having a say about where vending machines are placed in their buildings (as provided for in Article 11, Section 3, and Article 13, Section 1 of the CTU contract respectively).
-Emmy Partin
