Collective Bargaining in Education: A New Dialogue

Andrew J. Rotherham gave the opening presentation at the National Governors Association's December 2006 conference, "Collective Bargaining in Education: A New Dialogue." In his remarks, he describes the changing policy landscape in education as well as in labor and politics and how those changes can—and must—affect contract negotiations. Emphasizing that the current misalignment between educational goals and the systems embodied in contracts is not caused by those contracts but simply reflected in them, he offers three recommendations—more transparency, more research, more participation—for building contracts that best position educators and schools to meet the common goal of how best to serve the nation's public school students.

Included with these published remarks are two exclusive interviews by The Collaborative Communications Group with former California Secretary of Education and Education Sector Board President Alan Bersin, and United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

Read the full presentation, along with the full interviews on the Annenberg Institute for School Reform Web site. (PDF)