Scott Priest, president of the Richmond Education Association, says teachers "were blindsided" by Richmond Community Schools Superintendent Allen Bourff's testimony before the Indiana Senate in support of legislation limiting collective bargaining to wages and benefits. Because:
"When you're saying that the only thing we can come to the table and talk about is compensation, well that's problematic because our contract is 50 pages long. It has virtually everything that could possibly impact teaching, and all of those things are resolved together at the table. To give one side of the table all the cards, with the exception of one card, compensation, or two cards, compensation and benefits, it's troublesome."
Good lord -- 50 pages!?!? Well, that's "problematic" for a lot of reasons. It's not exactly hard to understand why Bourff and other administrators might want to rein it in a little. As the superintendent says, having to negotiate on every item, no matter how trivial, shackles administrations, and the proposed legislation will make school systems more nimble in their ability to respond to changing conditions. When Priest asserts that the contract includes "virtually everthing that could possibly impact teaching," he is unwittingly describing the scope of the problem.
