The California Teachers' Union is receiving a lot of press lately-most of it bad-for its forceful effort to expand the scope of collective bargaining in the state to include matters of curriculum and instruction. There is much pushback, including hostile editorials in every major newspaper in the state. A continent away, however, the Maryland legislature is quietly poised to hand over many of the same powers to the Maryland State Teachers Association. A bill passed last week by the state Senate would add curriculum selection, classroom assignments, teacher evaluations, and other topics to the list of issues that teachers' unions can bargain. The legislation, which is being pushed by Governor Parris Glendening (and termed by some his parting gift to the teachers' union) is expected to pass the House of Delegates easily. (That chamber overwhelmingly supported an even broader version of the legislation last year. It was the Senate that resisted then.) Local school boards and superintendents have ardently lobbied against the measure, arguing that education decisions should not be decided at the bargaining table. For details see "Senate passes bill to expand teacher bargaining power," by Howard Libit, Baltimore Sun, March 26, 2002
