COLUMBUS - The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions today released "Ohio's Contract for the Future: Teacher Union Collective Bargaining Reform in Dayton and Columbus" by Dr. Gary Roberts and Marc Kilmer. In this study, the authors provide recommendations for how to improve accountability of the schools in Dayton and Columbus through revisions to their collective bargaining agreements. The report is available here.
The contracts between school personnel and the two cities' boards of education are under negotiation this year and "Ohio's Contract for the Future" provides suggestions to both the school districts and state legislators on how to improve accountability. Among other things, the authors suggest:
"It's high time we put our students first, not the teacher unions," said David Hansen, President of the Buckeye Institute "If we can inject accountability into the system, we can ensure children in these two school districts receive the best possible education."
There are many obstacles to implementing better measures of accountability in the public school system. One of the main ones is the way in which teachers and school districts decide on teacher contracts. The collective bargaining system primarily promotes the interests of teachers and the school district over a more global vision of educational excellence. The interests of students, parents, or other community actors (all of whom have a direct or indirect stake in students' achievement) are afterthoughts if not ignored entirely.
"Both school districts and teachers' unions need to put the interests of students first," says study co-author Marc Kilmer. "Only through reforming the collective bargaining process will we see the reforms so desperately needed by Ohio students."
The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions is a nonpartisan research and educational institute devoted to individual liberty, economic freedom, personal responsibility and limited government in Ohio.