Race to Top Side Deals: An Alarming Trend?
My colleague Lesli Maxwell highlighted over at State EdWatch a disturbing trend in Florida, where some districts and their local teachers' unions are signing side deals that seem to fly in the face of the spirit of the Race to the Top competition.
Intrepid St. Pete Times reporter Ron Matus first wrote about the issue here, and has since uncovered more side deals.
Florida improved its round two application by getting 54 local unions on board (versus five in the first application.) Apparently, many of those signatures were given with a wink, wink.
Florida law requires districts to bargain wages and other factors affecting teachers. So its MOU says that to receive grant funds, districts and unions agree to bargain in good faith and that a failure to negotiate ALL the terms will mean the districts lose their grant money. But language in these side deals, at least the one in Hernando County, says: "The parties further agree that said signature does not constitute agreement to modify the existing [contract] or to negotiate additional language consistent with all elements of the [Florida Department of Education] Preliminary Scope of Work."
And another disturbing thing is that these side deals also say that any changes successfully negotiated
Intrepid St. Pete Times reporter Ron Matus first wrote about the issue here, and has since uncovered more side deals.
Florida improved its round two application by getting 54 local unions on board (versus five in the first application.) Apparently, many of those signatures were given with a wink, wink.
Florida law requires districts to bargain wages and other factors affecting teachers. So its MOU says that to receive grant funds, districts and unions agree to bargain in good faith and that a failure to negotiate ALL the terms will mean the districts lose their grant money. But language in these side deals, at least the one in Hernando County, says: "The parties further agree that said signature does not constitute agreement to modify the existing [contract] or to negotiate additional language consistent with all elements of the [Florida Department of Education] Preliminary Scope of Work."
And another disturbing thing is that these side deals also say that any changes successfully negotiated
