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Our view: The Baltimore teachers union vote against a landmark contract proposal may be only a temporary setback if both sides can say focused on what's best for kids
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Baltimore teachers' rejection of a proposed union contract that would have tied advancement — and pay — to effectiveness in the classroom was disappointing but by no means reason to despair of meaningful school reform. Many of the teachers who voted against the contract objected to the short time they had to digest a wholesale change in the way they would be compensated, and they complained that many of the details of the evaluation system that would be key to making the contract work remained unspecified. Those are reasonable objections, but they are not insurmountable.
The final vote was 58 percent against the contract and 42 percent in favor, with less than half the district's 6,500 teachers turning out. That's a solid but not overwhelming rebuff of the proposal negotiated by union leaders, and the fact that most teachers didn't turn out to vote might suggest that many of them may had simply assumed the
The final vote was 58 percent against the contract and 42 percent in favor, with less than half the district's 6,500 teachers turning out. That's a solid but not overwhelming rebuff of the proposal negotiated by union leaders, and the fact that most teachers didn't turn out to vote might suggest that many of them may had simply assumed the
