Layoffs: Our Role Isn't To Roll Over

NEA state affiliates fight for education funding, educate taxpayers about the impact of classroom cuts, and defend members' layoff and recall rights.

Photo by Mike Myslinski/CTA

In the face of budget uncertainty, California's Alameda Unified School District has apparently decided it'll do without educators in the coming school year--and handed reduction in force (RIF) notices to all 635 of its teachers. But the California Teachers Association (CTA) isn't buying the district's poverty plea for a minute.

Alameda issued those pink slips smack in the middle of contract talks with its teachers. "There's no way on God's green earth this district could lay off every teacher!" points out CTA President Wayne Johnson. "This is just a bargaining posture, a way to win psychological advantage with teachers and the press and gain takebacks at the bargaining table."

CTA is rightfully skeptical, but it isn't blind to fiscal reality. The state of California faces a whopping $35 billion budget deficit, which has prompted cautious school districts to issue at least 18,000 RIF notices, with more on the way.

But when school districts exploit budget cutbacks--as in Alameda--or simply overreact to them, CTA and other NEA state affiliates pose extremely tough questions about the larger state budget picture, local budget priorities, and the rights front-line educators are accorded during the layoff and "bumping" process.

If you've never endured the stress generated by a RIF notice, you've probably never considered the unique role your Association plays during an economic crisis.

Fortunately, most states have found humane alternatives to educator RIFs during this, the worst round of budget deficits since World War II. But teachers or education support professionals (ESPs) in states such as Alabama, California, Kentucky, Illinois, and Oklahoma have or will soon face the reality of position cuts in their ranks.

These educators are discovering that an NEA state affiliate can assist them by:

• Advocating for adequate state and local aid. Although the California legislature has slashed $2.4 billion from public education funding, CTA--through aggressive lobbying and thousands of member e-mails and letters to lawmakers--has ensured that $2 billion of that cut will not impact school district budgets (thanks to deferred cutbacks or fund shifts).
  And in Nebraska, where school shutdowns or program cuts have long generated reductions in force, the Nebraska State Education Association (NSEA) has earned a 71 percent success rate in persuading voters to "override" state property tax levy caps and save local schools--the very heart and soul of rural communities.
• Reaching out to the community. Through statewide media spots and coalition work with other public education supporters--every group from the state PTA to ethnic organizations--CTA recently saved California's historic K-3 class size reduction law from being sliced away by scalpel-wielding legislators. In the same spirit, NSEA has "long communicated to parents how class size increases and program cuts significantly impact their kids," notes staffer Brian Mikkelsen.
  NSEA uses public RIF hearings to educate both school board members and the larger community about the human cost of proposed staff cutbacks. NSEA attorney Scott Norby insists he stands a better chance of reversing a RIF decision through "political" pressure, "like when a school board looks out over a gymnasium full of 'patrons' who don't want the elimination of a teacher or program."
• Defending members' RIF rights. In California, CTA provides free legal support for any member who receives a RIF notice, including representation before an administrative law judge. And in Nebraska, NSEA automatically represents members at public RIF hearings, where district administrators must prove, among other things, that they have objective written RIF criteria and can prove a "change in circumstances" that justifies an individual's RIF.

  "No matter where you are in the country, you should know what your rights are in a layoff. They might be found under state law or even in negotiated contract language," advises UniServ Director Marcus Albrecht, who currently handles RIF cases in Illinois. "And post-layoff factors you need to consider include continued insurance coverage, unemployment insurance paid back to the first day of your claim, and payment for unused vacation, personal, and sick days."

• Providing moral support. "If you're not an Association member, RIF hearing representation isn't cheap; you'll pay $200 per hour for an attorney in Nebraska," notes NSEA Director of Member Rights Trish Guinan. "NSEA members, however, get free representation from trained UniServ staff, plus the moral support of our local affiliates. It's not uncommon for locals to babysit for teachers during their RIF hearings, shovel their snow, or take them to dinner when they're really stressed."

--Dave Winans

Keep Your Eye On. . .

. . . changes in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). NEA has been working with Congress to ensure that teacher and ESP voices are heard during the current process to "reauthorize"--revise and improve--IDEA. NEA's message to Congress: Refocus IDEA on student achievement, not on paperwork and process.

NEA is urging federal lawmakers to act on these key Association priorities: make full IDEA funding mandatory, increase dollars for professional development, improve working conditions by reducing paperwork and caseload burdens, expand early intervention efforts, amend IDEA's discipline provisions to enhance school safety, and defeat voucher proposals.

And NEA's message to you: Don't wait until the IDEA reauthorization bill has passed to let Congress know how you feel IDEA should be improved--go to the NEA Legislative Action Center at www.nea.org/lac. To receive IDEA updates, send your e-mail address to NEA staffer Patti Ralabate at pralabate@nea.org.

. . . the 115-member Bow (New Hampshire) Education Association (BEA), which has been engaged in a long, grueling campaign to win contract language specifying that teachers shall only be disciplined for "just cause"--a right already enshrined in 74 percent of NEA-New Hampshire's (NEA-NH) local agreements.

At present, "we have almost no protection from the whim of administrators or backlash from angry parents," says BEA President Kathryn Ford. "We want it in writing that all administrators will agree to treat all bargaining unit members fairly and equally."

BEA members may only grieve issues specifically addressed in the current master agreement. That, says Ford, leaves teachers unprotected when administrators intimidate, show favoritism, insert unsubstantiated complaints in personnel files, "pressure" teachers over renewals/non-renewals, or make "inconsistent observations" of teacher work.

NEA-New Hampshire has filed two unfair labor practice charges against the Bow district school board for improperly attempting to influence the bargaining process, both among non-negotiating BEA members and local residents.

Ford says the board is bent on retaining unfettered "management rights" and fears that "just cause" language will lead to more grievances. "Our negotiators keep saying," she points out, "that this language will lead to grievances only if administrators are unfair or capricious in their dealings with the professionals who teach the children of the district."

In an escalating crisis campaign, BEA members have been reaching out to parents and the press, wearing "No Contract is No Solution" buttons, engaging in informational picketing (even in sub-zero winter weather), entering and leaving schools each day as a group, and refusing voluntary evening activities.

Bow teachers have received bargaining and communications support from NEA-NH staff and leaders, and "we have received many phone calls of encouragement from parents," reports BEA Negotiations Chair Paula Bailey. "Even better, parents have stopped to picket with us and contacted board members to express their dismay over this impasse."

The stakes for BEA members in this battle intensified at press time. The New Hampshire state legislature was about to pass a bill that abolishes binding arbitration for any grievance "resulting from non-renewal." That legislation will "make it easier to fire teachers during this time of teacher shortages--that's scary," concludes Bailey.

For more information, contact Kathryn Ford at kford@bownet.org or visit the BEA website at www.bownet.org/bea.

. . . the 22 paraeducator members of the Lamoille (Vermont) Union High School Education Association (LUHEA), who have ratified a three-year contract that includes 21 percent in "new money" in the first year, 4.5 percent raises in both the second and third years, and an "agency fee" for non-members who enjoy the fruits of union representation.

The agreement, signed in March, provides hourly raises ranging from $1 to $7 in the first year, pays tuition for one three-credit college course per year, and bumps up either the second- or the third-year raise--from 4.5 percent to 6 percent--for a para who completes a college course with at least a B average.

In bargaining last year, other Lamoille education support professionals (ESPs) set a strong precedent for the para contract. But it was new-member organizing--bringing 86 percent of the paras into the Association--and the smart work of negotiating team members Shelley Jones, Darcey Fletcher, and Rita Graves that made the ultimate difference.

Vermont-NEA (VT-NEA) UniServ Director Suzanne Dirmaier, who only sat in for the last hour of contract talks, points out that the para negotiators did their own economic research and displayed "self-reliance, assertiveness, and self-esteem" at the table.

Shelley Jones credits the team's success to skills gained at VT-NEA training sessions and regional bargaining council meetings--where negotiators compare settlements and tactics--and the full support of LUHEA teacher leaders.

Helping it all come together, Jones quickly adds, was a good working relationship with school board negotiators.

Most importantly, this ESP leader concludes, "we proved that with large numbers of Association members, a school board is willing to listen to you. Without those numbers and the support of Vermont-NEA, we would still be making the minimum wage."

When They Look At Layoffs, Look At Their Books

When a school district targets front-line educators for layoffs without first examining its priorities--or its books--it's just begging for Association scrutiny.

"Laying off teachers will increase class sizes and not provide our students with the quality education they deserve," notes California Teachers Association President Wayne Johnson. "Districts should target budget cuts away from the classroom and professionals who work directly with students."

Too many California districts, Johnson charges, are addressing budget shortfalls by protecting "administrative bureaucracies" at the expense of front-line educators. "You haven't read many news stories about mass administrative layoffs," he says.

Nationally, Johnson adds, districts are spending an ever smaller slice of the budget pie on teachers. According to a 2001 survey completed by the American Federation of Teachers, teacher salaries today account for a smaller proportion of total education spending than they did 40 years ago--down from 50.9 percent in 1960-61 to 39.5 percent in 2000-01.

Jerry Jones, a retired Nebraska State Education Association UniServ Director, who analyzes annual district financial reports for NSEA in five-year sequences, sees this trend at work in the Cornhusker State. "I discover that in most cases, not all, teacher salaries as a percentage of available funds are going down over the years, with more funds being put in reserve," he reports.

Other trends? "Most districts overestimate expenditures and underestimate receipts and the amount of money left over at the end of the year," Jones says.

So aside from the mattress, just where is that money going? In at least one Nebraska district, Jones sighs, "it's legal fees--the attorney makes more than the superintendent."

School board members aren't professional educators and rely on what administrators tell them about district expenses, Jones concludes. "Often they don't know these kinds of numbers until the Association represents members at a RIF hearing!"

Advice to school board members everywhere: Learn some accounting or be held to account.

--D.W.