Dive Brief:
- After 21-months of negotiations, the five-person committee in charge of Philadelphia Public Schools has decided to annul its contract with the city's teacher union.
- The move, which the Philadelphia School Reform Commission says will save $44 million, will also see changes made to offered health-care benefits, requiring teachers to give to a health fund.
- Given how long negotiations have been going on for, the decision comes as a shock for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which says the decision "has amped up a war on teachers."
Dive Insight:
While the commission says it will continue with many of the contract's other provisions, The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss argues that the committee has already gone against terms. For example it did away with paying teachers' increases based on an agreed upon "steps" system.
Now that the contract has been canceled, teachers will have slim down their healthcare options and pay 13% of their medical premiums.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten released a statement placing the blame largely on Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. "Clearly and recklessly, the SRC is trying to provoke a strike—since there have been no real negotiations since SRC Chair Bill Green was appointed by the governor. Green, in fact, has shown by his actions—spending his time and resources hiring lawyers and going to court—that the commission would rather attempt to impose a contract than work with teachers to figure out what is best for Philadelphia’s kids," Weingarten wrote.
Weingarten's mention of Corbett is important, since it was the state's education cuts — not union fees — that largely resulted in the district's cash-strapped situation. Interestingly, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission fails to mention Corbett and funding cuts in its own statement about the contract repeal.