Group recommends giving school boards more authority

CARSON CITY -- Mandatory collective bargaining for Nevada teachers must end and the decisions of how to run schools should be turned back to the elected school board members, a conservative think tank study concludes.

The Nevada Policy Research Institute study, which was released Wednesday, says teacher unions have gained enormous power through the state's 1969 collective bargaining law and can block schools from firing bad teachers and frustrate their ability to cope with recessions.

"Given today's realities, mandatory collective bargaining of the current stripe is mandatory collective suicide for Nevada's students and taxpayers," according to Greg Moo, a former teacher, principal and educational administrator in Alaska, Montana and Oregon.

"It's time for the makers of the rules to change the rules -- so the game can be played as much to the benefit of student learners as to the benefit of teacher unions."

The Las Vegas-based think tank's policies are often backed by Republican legislators. In fact, Assembly Republicans have made the end of mandatory collective bargaining by public unions one of their goals.

But from statements made in his study, Moo knows that the Democratic majority in the Assembly and Senate likely won't be persuaded to back his plan.

"Counting out the teacher unions would be foolish. Under NRS 288 (collective bargaining laws) they are strong, unafraid and well-financed. And they have powerful friends in high places," he states.

Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, said there is little chance the Legislature would back the NPRI recommendations, pointing out that Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval also does not favor ending collective bargaining.

Sandoval asked legislators to disregard a bill prepared by former Gov. Jim Gibbons that would have ended collective bargaining by public worker unions. Sandoval said he wants to work on collective bargaining reforms with legislative leaders.

He also has proposed legislation to give out education vouchers and end teacher tenure. The governor also wants teachers to take a 5 percent pay cut and contribute 5.9 percent more of their income toward their retirement pension costs.

Nevada State Education Association President Lynn Warne called the study a "misleading report" that is an attack on public schools and their 28,000 members.

"Collective bargaining does not stand as an impediment to innovation, to reform, or student achievement. On the contrary, collective bargaining laws ensure our students receive a quality education," Wrane said.

"Additionally, collective bargaining allows for teachers and education support professionals to focus on what they are hired to do -- educate our kids. It allows for matters related to working and learning conditions -- curriculum, class size, work load, salaries and benefits, etc. -- to be acceptable for students to succeed."

Warne said the states with the highest student achievement rates are strong union states with collective bargaining laws.

Moo emphasized some of the problems with collective bargaining could be alleviated if legislators would create a tax-supported voucher system available to all parents.

"If parents could choose which schools their children attend, schools would compete for students and teacher unions would become more like their private-sector union counterparts, since their success or failure would depend on the success or failure of the enterprise from which they draw their income."

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.