Ed Hughes on Madison Teacher Absences & Protest

Madison School Board Member Ed Hughes, via email:

It's been a non-quiet week here in Madison. Everyone has his or her own take on the events. Since I'm a member of the Madison School Board, mine is necessarily a management perspective. Here's what the week's been like for me.

Nearly as soon as the governor's budget repair bill was released last Friday, I had a chance to look at a summary and saw what it did to collective bargaining rights. Basically, the bill is designed to gut public employee unions, including teacher unions. While it does not outlaw such unions outright, it eliminates just about all their functions.

Our collective bargaining agreement with MTI is currently about 165 pages, which I think is way too long. If the bill passes, our next collective bargaining agreement can be one paragraph -- way, way, way too short.

On Monday, Board members collaborated on a statement condemning the legislation and the rush to push it through. All Board members signed the statement on Monday evening and it was distributed to all MMSD staff on Tuesday.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 21, 2011 10:00 AM
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