HB582 was considered by the House Labor and Commerce Committee this afternoon. The committee adopted a comprehensive substitute. The substitute would require public bodies, including school boards, to engage in collective bargaining with employee organizations. The bill also requires that these collective bargaining agreements include, among other things, grievance procedures that provide for final and binding arbitration.
VSBA has Legislative Position, 4.3, to oppose any legislation which would permit or expand the authority of any school board
to engage in collective bargaining. Click here it access the VSBA Legislative Positions.
Based on Legislative Position 4.3, VSBA opposes HB582. Rationale for our opposition is included below.
· Any
legislation that requires school boards to enter into collective bargaining
agreements that include binding arbitration is unconstitutional.
o
No Virginia school board can agree to be subject to binding
arbitration and, short of a constitutional amendment, the General Assembly
cannot mandate such agreements. See
School Board for the City of Richmond v. Parham, 218 Va. 950 (1978) (“We
conclude, therefore, that the binding arbitration provision of the Procedure
produces an unlawful delegation of power, violative of § 7 of Article VIII of
the Constitution.”)
· Because
school boards do not have taxing authority, they are not in a position to
bargain with teachers’ unions with regard to salary or any other terms with a
local cost.
o
School boards are prohibited by law from entering into any
contract to expend funds beyond what has been appropriated for the current
fiscal year. See Va. Code §
22.1-91.
· The national
trend in the last decade has been to move away from collective bargaining
rights for teachers and towards focusing on student achievement instead.
o
Indeed, the vast majority of teacher collective bargaining laws
were adopted between 1959 and 1987 and only one state (New Mexico), has adopted
a duty-to-bargain law for public education since 1987.
o
On the other hand, many states including Wisconsin, Indiana,
Idaho, Tennessee, and Michigan, have adopted legislation in the last decade to
reduce teacher’s rights to collectively bargain.
Collective bargaining can be used to increase protections for
ineffective teachers. VSBA believes that
effective teachers are essential to providing a high-quality education to every
student, in every school.
