Is the contract offer really "insulting"?

Union representatives have been negotiating with the School Board here in Baltimore; however, the head of the BTU called the most recent offer “insulting, degrading, and downright disrespectful.” I have mixed emotions about the Baltimore Teachers Union, though generally, I believe that organized labor is a significant benefit for protecting employees. The article in the Baltimore Sun did not give too many details about the contract offer, but apparently some of the offensive aspects included extending the teachers’ work day, increasing health care premiums, cutting back sick days, requiring lavatory duty, and dictating lesson plan formats. The union leaders believe that the offer is even worse because the Board made these recommendations without including a significant pay raise.

I can certainly understand why the BTU representatives would not be satisfied with such changes in the contract. On the other hand, none of these issues are particularly offensive to me. For example, extending the work day does not necessarily sound good to me, but I can definitely understand how it might benefit the students. Furthermore, every single teacher that I consider to be effective spends at least another hour working in some way, so depending on how the time fit into the schedule, some peoples’ days wouldn’t change too much. Currently I do not pay anything for health care, but I could certainly afford a small fee if it were necessary. The issue regarding sick days could anger teachers, which I would understand, but I also feel like we get more than our fair share of sick days each year. With the current 15 days off a year, teachers are really only obligated to work 175 days a year.

The two recommendations that actually bother me are the last ones: requiring lavatory duty and dictating specific lesson plan formats. The requirement of lavatory duty angers me in the sense that I do not believe teachers should have to take on administrative duties. I know that everyone in the school has to do his/her part; I also know that the responsibilities of teachers can become a never-ending list in some circumstances. The problem that I have with requiring specific lesson plan formats is related to my stand against increasing standardization. Though I can understand the desire to improve weak lesson planning, imposing one format will only create resentment and probably do little good in the end.

One final point made by the head of the BTU was that it seemed unfair that the district is putting so much effort into recruiting new teachers, but paying little attention to retaining current teachers. The article points out that substantial bonuses and incentives are available to attract incoming teachers, but nothing of the same is offered to keeping experienced teachers in the classroom. I believe that this judgment reflects a serious flaw that the district needs to address, and that the union might better serve teachers in addressing it.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.ci.board25apr25,0,1917976.story?coll=bal-education-k12