Colorado Teachers Should Know Their Rights to Leave the Union
- August 20, 2015
EDUCATION – Labor
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- EDUCATION – Labor
Teachers Lobbying on Taxpayer Time Needs to be Addressed0
- April 30, 2010
Teachers certainly have the right to speak out on legislation that will affect their professional lives. However, unlike supporters of the bill, many opposing teachers have taken days off at taxpayer expense. The locally negotiated perk of “association leave” enables unions to designate teachers to skip class to perform union business.
READ MOREUnion Pushes Tax-Funded Leave to Lobby Against Effective Teaching0
- April 22, 2010
Union leaders in some Colorado school districts are urging teachers to take special tax-funded leave from the classroom to lobby against teacher effectiveness legislation. Education policy analyst Ben DeGrow explains that school districts provide little or no oversight of how union release time can be used, and recommends policy changes at the local and state level.
READ MOREMore Accountability Coming for Colorado Teachers and Principals?0
- April 16, 2010
Newly introduced Senate Bill 191 would tie Colorado’s K-12 education system more closely to performance, with student academic growth being given significant weight in teacher and principal evaluations and tenure considerations. State senator Michael Johnston (D-Denver) discusses the mechanics of his bill and the large, growing coalition of support it has received, as Colorado continues to pursue Race to the Top federal grant dollars.
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Colorado Education and Open Negotiations: Increasing Public Access to School District Bargaining0
- April 16, 2010
Forty-two of Colorado’s 178 school districts bargain exclusively with a local teachers union. Often conducted by tax-funded district employees on both sides, negotiations forge policies that determine the use of taxpayer dollars. Yet only one of the 42 districts has an established policy that thoroughly ensures the public’s right to observe bargaining negotiations.
READ MOREUnion Pays Up for Violating Teachers' Free Speech Rights0
- April 9, 2010
Marking the end of a decade-long legal saga, the teachers union in Washington state reached a settlement to pay $1.2 million in penalties plus legal fees for breaking state campaign finance laws and violating teacher free speech rights—nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic Davenport ruling. Mike Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation celebrates a hard-fought victory and looks ahead to future battles for government union accountability and individual free speech rights.
READ MORETime for Accountability in Colorado Teachers Union Release Time0
- February 24, 2010
Many Colorado school districts give teachers and other employees taxpayer-funded release time from their school duties to serve as union officers or to do other union business. Education policy analyst Ben DeGrow talks about his new report that finds very little accountability for the practice, even though evidence shows at least one example of political campaign work being done on release time.
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