Why do districts and teachers wait until the end of summer to negotiate?

Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The David Boze Show.

Why is it that the school districts always decide to negotiate with the teachers’ unions right before school is going to start?

It seems like every single year, in the headlines it says that districts are in trouble because school is about to start and they can’t come to a contract agreement.

This year, the Seattle School District is still in negotiations a week before school is set to begin, and in South Kitsap teachers have approved a strike.

Of course, the only people under time constraints in these cases are the districts because the district is the one that’s going to have to answer to the parents. They’re going to be the ones who are going to be under the gun, under the pressure, and they’re going to be the ones who are going to get yelled at.

Whereas, the teachers’ union can sit back and say, ‘Hey the closer we get to the deadline, the more leverage we have.’ They also get an extra week of summer and they still get paid because your pay is based on the year. They’re going to have the same amount of school days, so they’re not missing anything at all.

Yet over and over again, every year, this happens.

Surely, nobody is too busy at the beginning of summer. Why can’t we have all the negotiations then? Get them all done ahead of time. Then there wouldn’t be all this mystery for parents, trying to figure out if they need a babysitter, or if they will be able to go to work.

But instead, every year it’s just a big, mystery hassle. And it’s all by design, of course.

Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The David Boze Show.

Related:
Seattle teachers reject district contract offer

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