Should teacher unions be given a bigger say on academic issues? This is the question that the California Assembly is grappling with as they debate Assembly Bill 2160. The 300,000 member California Teachers Association and its allies are pushing hard for passage of the bill, while policymakers and administrators argue that the proposal is a power grab that, if passed, would block needed reforms. The Pacific Research Institute's (PRI) Center for School Reform jumped directly into the debate with the release of this report, which argues that California's public schools are near the bottom in student achievement despite record spending levels because unions perversely influence classroom instruction through the collective bargaining process. Although the report's evidence is skimpy in terms of showing a direct correlation between collective bargaining and deteriorating academic achievement, it does show that collective bargaining in California has resulted in education costing taxpayers far more than it would without unions and the bargaining process. For example, in an average California school district, 85 percent of the district's operating budget is tied to teacher and employee salaries. Such huge labor costs obviously constraint school system leaders from using resources to try innovative projects or technologies. Collective bargaining agreements-which reward experience over expertise-also make it harder to fire ineffective teachers and reward good ones. The report contends that teacher unions in California have been a major obstacle to urban school reform. It is for this reason that even those with a history of supporting teacher unions are troubled by a bill that would strengthen their grip on things like curriculum and instruction. Los Angeles superintendent (and former Democratic Colorado governor) Roy Romer recently told Education Week that if Assembly Bill 2160 had been in effect when he took over the running of L.A.'s troubled schools, "much of the recent reform in L.A. would not have occurred." In summary, collective bargaining may or may not have played a role in precipitating the decline of California's once vaunted public education system, but there is little doubt that union power and influence have made it far more difficult to resuscitate the state's sickest schools. The report is available at http://www.pacificresearch.org.
