Tacoma schools don't need a lecture from lawmakers

Maybe this is what a psychologist would call transference.

Maybe I’m really angry at the Tacoma school administration and the Tacoma Education Association for dangling one of the state’s largest school districts on the brink of a strike.

But since that wouldn’t be constructive, I’m turning my ire toward a trio of local legislators who sent letters to school Superintendent Art Jarvis and board President Kurt Miller urging a “fair and equitable contract.”

Maybe they don’t deserve my ire. Then again, maybe they do.

I’m not unhappy with state Sen. Steve Conway and state Reps. Laurie Jinkins and Connie Ladenburg – Tacoma Democrats all – because they voted for the 2011-13 state budget. They were put into a tough situation by the economy.

One of the difficult choices they made was to try to carve out a pay cut for public school teachers to match the cut imposed on most other state workers. Because those teachers are employed by local districts but paid primarily with state dollars, those cuts had to be bargained locally. Absent an agreement to reduce payroll by 1.9 percent, districts would have to find the money somewhere else.

That issue has been debated in school districts across the state this summer, though perhaps most loudly in Tacoma where it was the brightest flashpoint in difficult contract negotiations.

Should the teachers absorb the cut, or should the district cover it by dipping into savings? Given that the Legislature helped solve its own budget problem by transferring a state responsibility – basic teacher salaries – to local taxpayers, I figured lawmakers might feel a bit sheepish and keep quiet about the ugly repercussions of what they did.

Instead, these three responded to union requests for support by sending letters, dated Aug. 29, that appear on the surface to have taken the teachers’ side in the dispute. They were quickly posted on the union website Weteachtacoma.org.

A careful read, however, shows they are little more than endorsements of striking a fair deal soon, as though there are forces out there pushing unfair and inequitable contracts.

Conway even went out on a limb to endorse what has been in state law for decades – the right of public workers to form unions and bargain collectively.

Ladenburg at least referenced her role in the problem when she wrote that “the economy and the Legislature’s last session have made your decisions difficult.”

But she then stated the obvious: “... a timely resolution is needed in order for our children to continue their education endeavors and start school on time.”

Oh, of course! A timely resolution! Why didn’t the administration and the union think of that?

Jinkins’ letter is the most interesting, because it seems to endorse much of the reform agenda of groups such as Vibrant Schools Tacoma, an agenda that has been resisted by many teacher union leaders. Again on orders of the Legislature, the contract talks had to include improved teacher evaluations that start including measures of student achievement such as test scores.

“... I know firsthand that our communities care deeply about the outcome of the bargain as it relates to student achievement,” wrote Jinkins, the mother of a son who has been hoping to start school on time. She also wrote of a “student-centered contract,” which is terminology adopted by both sides but first used by school reform groups.

While Jinkins endorsed an agreement that provides “a professional wage to recruit and retain the best teachers,” she also said she wanted a contract “that recognizes the high expectations and standards within the teaching profession.”

Again, this is reform lingo and not an unequivocal endorsement of the union’s position. But such nuance was lost on union leaders who saw it as such.

And there was no reaction from district administrators and school board members who absorbed a grandstanding lecture on negotiations from the very politicians whose votes made those negotiations so difficult.

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657 peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/politics