Education Sector & Collective Bargaining - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Education Sector & Collective Bargaining Education Sector & Collective Bargaining [Institute’s Education Sector & Collective Bargaining Introduction According to its definition, collective bargaining refers to “legal and authorized process where employees, collectively though a platform of a union or group, negotiate various aspects of employment ad business such as salaries, benefits, transfers, empowerment, authority, decision making and others, with the employers” (English, 2011). Despite the fact that collective bargaining is now prevalent is almost all public and private sector industries, the case of education is a bit different. There still are significant differences between the nature of collective bargaining in other industries and in education. This paper is an attempt to shed some light on the same with the help of different arguments and perspectives. Discussion It was in the year 1935 when the congress passed National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), which still guarantees the employees working in the private sector to form unions and use collective bargaining. Furthermore, this law also forces the institutions to respect these unions and allow these employees to bargain from the platforms of these unions (Loveless, 2000). It is also interesting to note the impact of collective bargaining power on educational levels and performance of students. According to the recent statistics provided by “National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of the 52 American Jurisdictions” (English, 2011), Virginia is only American, which prohibits collective bargaining in education sector and still ranks at the seventh position when it comes to assessment of grade 4th students in reading. Furthermore, out of the top 30 states in this list, Virginia is the only one to prohibit collective bargaining. It is also interesting to note that the rest of the four states which prohibit collective bargaining in education, “North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina” (English, 2011) appear on that list on 31st, 34th, 37th and 42th position respectively. Even in case of assessment of the knowledge of science of the fourth grade students in these states, all the states except of Virginia, which prohibit collective bargaining in education, had lesser scores than the aggregate average of the entire country (English, 2011). Furthermore, as move towards the statistics provided for the grade 8 and grade 12 students, a visible trend appears. All others states, which prohibit collective bargaining, remain at the bottom but Virginia also keep falling down in the ranking (English, 2011). According to the researches regarding the salaries of teachers, especially in the public schools, most teachers are paid with single salary schedule. Regardless of which grade and subject they teach the criteria for determining their salary remains the same, which depends heavily on their degrees, qualification, and their years of service. There are almost no schools or teachers with bargain on other factors such as difficulty of the job, working with at risk children, working conditions, previous performance, or time required by the children, researches required, and others (English, 2011). The concept of merit based pay is still far way in education sector, however, in other sectors, merit based pay is an existing and growing phenomenon (Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). Nevertheless, as one move up the hierarchy of education undergraduate, masters level education and so on, the power to bargaining the salary with experience and educational qualification increases. There are fewer teachers for higher education, thus they are able to exercise significant power over the bargaining power duties (Moo, 1999; Imber & Geel, 2010). Collective bargaining in various industries and professions involving measures such as strikes and walkouts; however, they cannot be applied in the same way in the educational sector. This is true because professions of doctors, teachers, and law enforcement agencies provided important and urgent services to the society (Imber & Geel, 2010). Important here is to understand the difference between important and urgent services. All other professions provide services, which are important, but at times, they are not urgent (Loveless, 2000). A slight delay in them will not take lives or would not raise moral questions. However, if doctors go on a strike or police officers stop fighting with crime then lives may be lost. Furthermore, if teachers go on a strike, then may questions would be raised regarding their ethical and moral values (English, 2011). It is also important to note that collective bargaining at the higher education differ greatly from that of other primary and secondary level education. There are chances that in higher education, there would be much more employees than compared to that of primary and secondary education institutions (Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). In many states, the statues and rules regarding “collective bargaining with higher education institutions” (Moo, 1999) are different from that of district schools and high schools. It is also likely that the interests of faculty members in a higher educational institution would differ greatly from each other, thus the idea of gathering these people under one umbrella would be difficult duties (Moo, 1999; Imber & Geel, 2010). Collective bargaining in schools and other educational institutions is also different because if collective bargaining, in its truest sense, is applied in schools, then there are chances that the consequences would not be good for the institutions and especially the students. For example, collective bargaining would make it virtually impossible for the school administration to transfer or fire any teacher based on any performance. Even if the teacher had done anything wrong, it would take weeks before the school administration could go through all the procedures and prove the same to the unions (Imber & Geel, 2010). The loss of time of students and the gap created during that period would not be easy to compensate. Furthermore, if true collective bargaining is put in place then teachers will also reserve the right to complain if any evaluator, observer of school authority or principal comes into the class unannounced (Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). Quite understandably, it is imperative for teacher evaluation to visit the class announced every occasionally to get hold of the ground realities and teacher performance. Only announced evaluations would mean that teachers would get all the time in world to show a different side of them and then behave differently for the rest of the time (Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). With proper collective bargaining, teacher may also reserve the right to limit the number of meetings, conferences, and open houses where it is mandatory for them to interact with the parents. School administrations and parents always want to have maximum number of such events so that they could remain in touch about the education of their children (Loveless, 2000). Nevertheless, if teachers assume this authority then there are all the chances that would limit that to the minimum for their comfort and least possible confrontation. In addition, collective bargaining may also allow the teachers and other school staff to use the classroom and other school facilities for their personal or individual use to some extent (Loveless, 2000; Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). Conclusion Therefore, towards the end, it is understandable enough to conclude that collective bargaining in educational institutions is much different from other industries and institutions. Furthermore, as we move up to the ladder of education towards higher education, the nature, and dynamics of collective bargaining is different. Education is different from other services, students are not the customers despite the fact that they appear to be, teachers are different from other employees, and the importance, urgency, and criticalness of this service and other factors greatly differentiate it from other services and industries (Loveless, 2000). It is also important to note that most of the efforts in collective bargaining are directed towards empowering the employees to obtain their just rights so that any injustice from the side of the employers could be stopped and prevented. After years and years of injustice and exploitation of workers by factories and employers during the industrial revolution, collective bargaining and other means of empowering employees became imperative. Employees are the focal point in any business environment in most of the industries and businesses. Nevertheless, the same is not true with similar intensity in case of educational institutions. The “prime” concern or moral responsibility of educational institutions is not to ensure flexibility, comforts, and benefits but it is to ensure that the children of the nation are on the right path. Educational institutions are there to help in constructing a generation of leaders, educated, literate, and thoughtful people who could make this world a better place. Therefore, the focus should remain on doing the same and not allowing the teachers with ways to minimize their responsibilities and run away from their duties (Moo, 1999); Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). References English, F. W. (2011). The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership: Advances in Theory, Research, and Practice. SAGE. Hannaway, J., & Rotherham, A. J. (2006). Collective bargaining in education: negotiating change in today's schools. Harvard Education Press. Imber, M., & Geel, T. V. (2010). A Teacher's Guide to Education Law. Taylor & Francis. Loveless, T. (2000). Conflicting missions: teachers unions and educational reform. Brookings Institution Press. Moo, G. G. (1999). Power grab: how the National Education Association is betraying our children. Regnery Publishing. Read More