SB939(Saslaw), a bill which would authorize public employee collective bargaining,
has been reported from two Senate Committees, with no opportunity for public
comment, and is headed to the floor of the Senate.
The
VSBA opposes this bill and urges the members of the Senate to vote against
SB939.
The
Virginia School Boards Association opposes any legislation that would authorize
collective bargaining for school board employees.
We
have heard from teachers and the VEA, in testimony before House committees,
that what they hope to achieve through collective bargaining is better pay,
more planning time, and more support staff to reduce the burdens on teachers.
The
VSBA agrees that teachers deserve these things.
We only disagree about the best way to go about achieving those shared
goals:
- We believe the General Assembly should vote to increase teacher salaries.
- We believe that too many demands have been placed on teachers over the last decade and that the General Assembly should vote to eliminate the support staff cap.
- We believe that the General Assembly should vote to lower student teacher ratios so we have more teachers to share the load, allowing for more planning time and other flexibility for our teachers.
These
are the solutions that Virginia needs.
Collective bargaining will not solve those problems across the
Commonwealth.
Collective
bargaining will drive up costs and divert precious resources away from
classrooms to be spent instead on lawyers and arbitrations and protracted
bargaining and all the other costs that come with a unionized workforce.
We
believe that this legislation will have significant costs for localities and we
fear that collective bargaining will shift even more of the burden for the
costs of education onto localities.
In
addition, the bill is ambiguous regarding which body – the local school board
or the local
governing body – can authorize collective bargaining. Even more troubling, the bill arguably
permits teacher strikes (while maintaining the ban or law enforcement and other
public employee strikes).
We
believe that authorizing collective bargaining for public employees is a dangerous
step in the wrong direction.
Please
contact your Senator and urge him or her to defeat SB939.
