Rhode Island’s teachers’ unions, long under political fire, are bracing for a tough year as a tight state budget, new restrictions on municipal and school district spending, and growing frustration with urban schools’ performance build up the momentum for reform.
The last major school reform law passed in Rhode Island was the so-called “Article 31,” in 1997, which targeted funds for school improvement efforts and imposed several accountability measures, including state-wide academic standards and annual testing.
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The federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed by President Bush in 2002, imposed additional requirements and raised the stakes for schools. But despite big increases in school spending at the state and local levels, student achievement has not substantially improved.
Many blame teachers’ contracts for this disconnect, saying that they hinder reform efforts and saddle districts with costly salary and benefits requirements. And now, with the financial pressures mounting, those critics see an opportunity.
“I think there is change on the horizon,” said Valerie Forti, president of The Education Partnership, a business-backed advocacy group. “We are paying more and more attention to our education system, and citizens are demanding more accountability. I don’t think it’s going to be possible for unions to dig in and say, ‘We don’t want to work with you. We don’t want to talk to you.’ ”
Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a former teacher, has been among the unions’ critics. He has stirred up controversy with suggestions such as merging Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls into a single school district – a notion rejected by local leaders.
But while that kind of change might still not be politically feasible, attitudes are changing.
“The legislature has reached a high level of frustration where they’re not as willing to simply put more and more money into the system because one, they don’t know that that buys any property tax relief and two, they don’t know that it will result in the kids doing better,” said state Rep. Paul W. Crowley, D-Newport, one of the authors of Article 31 and a reform advocate.
A lot of the state’s money “goes into retirement benefits and things that don’t connect to classroom activity,” he said, and that’s not what legislators want.
To save money, Crowley has proposed that Rhode Island combine the districts’ health plans into a single plan that covers all teachers and benefits from economies of scale. There also has been talk of going further and having a single teachers’ contract for the state.
James Parisi, a lobbyist for the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, said that although the state’s districts already do some joint purchasing and collaborate on some things, such as special education, he hasn’t seen any “serious” proposals to merge districts, and the union doesn’t see much potential for joint health plans or unified contracts. “While we have from time to time considered the issue of group purchases for medical insurance, we are skeptical there is any real savings by doing so,” he said.
As for ideas floating around for a statewide salary scale, Parisi said: “If the purpose … is to save money and reduce teacher compensation, of course we’re against it. There are some long-term issues relative to recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers in our schools, and competitive salaries is part of that equation.”
Moreover, Parisi said, if salaries were to be set at the state level but teachers still had to negotiate other aspects of their contracts, new “inequities” would be created.
“A union contract is much more than just salary – it includes provisions for class size, equipment and supplies, and transfer procedures,” he said. Some teachers might find themselves with the same pay as their peers, but with larger class sizes, for example.
And there are larger issues at stake, Parisi said. “The real question is: Are we going to maintain locally elected school committees running public schools in the state?”
On the issue of accountability, Marcia Reback, president of the RIFTHP, said that teachers are unduly blamed for some schools’ low test scores, poor student attendance and the slow progress of special-needs students and immigrants.
“It’s difficult in situations where your schools are listed in the newspapers as failing and the general public assigns blame,” she said. “You hear harangues about people being incompetent and not being able to do their jobs.”
Teachers, district leaders and others “need to explain continually to the public what the ranking systems mean,” Reback added, “and the effects of poverty … and newcomers to the country, those who don’t speak English, and how that affects those test scores.”
Yet Reback said she understands taxpayers’ unease as a growing share of school costs are financed through the property tax.
“The state provides only 35 percent, on average, for funding education – and yet, only a decade ago, the state was providing 49 percent,” she said. “There’s been a real a shift in burden on local taxpayers, and it creates local taxpayer resistance to funding public education.”
Gary S. Sasse, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, which publishes annual reports on school spending and performance and has been working with advocates, district leaders and the unions to develop a new formula for state aid, said that is one of the areas where he sees potential for progress this year.
“It’s a difficult budget year,” Sasse said, but the new property tax and school spending increase caps approved last year are putting additional pressure on the state to help districts finance public education. After several months’ work, the group working on an aid formula is coming close to a consensus, he added, and it won’t pit unions against school districts.
Sasse said he also sees potential for improvements in teacher professional development programs and other efforts that involve raising standards and boosting student achievement.
And on a smaller, perhaps regional scale, he said, he expects to see increased interest in joint purchasing – maybe even of health insurance and other benefits.
Forti has bigger ambitions, however. She believes the time has come for a serious dissection of the existing teacher contracts.
“There absolutely is no way to sustain some of the costs that have been obligated in the contracts,” she said. “We understand that the unions and school committees say the contracts have been negotiated in good faith. What we’re saying is, they have to be renegotiated in good faith.”
But Sasse said his decades in public policy have taught him that “it’s very difficult to shove things down people’s throats,” so building consensus is important. And asked whether major reforms of the magnitude of Article 31 could pass this year, he wouldn’t venture a guess.
Yet he was cautiously optimistic.
“There’s an unprecedented amount of activity,” Sasse said. “This has the potential to be a good year, because everyone is recognizing the need to do something. … The stage is set, but there are high-stake issues, and it’s too early to forecast what the outcome will be.”
With additional reporting by Marion Davis.
