Today is the first day that teachers and support staff in the Little Rock School District (LRSD) have gone to work without the Little Rock Education Association (LREA) negotiating the terms of their employment. I blame the wealthy Walton family for putting these teachers in harm’s way.
On the strength of a motion by State Board of Education (SBoE) member Sarah Moore, and under pressure from Gary Newton (paid lobbyist for Arkansas Learns — one of the many Walton-funded “education reform” groups in Arkansas,) the Arkansas SBoE voted to de-certify the LREA on October 10, 2019. The LREA/LRSD contract ended yesterday, so today was the first day LRSD teachers went to work without a Professionally Negotiated Agreement (PNA) in place.
Instead, LRSD claims its employees will be represented by a Personnel Policies Committee (PPC.) PPC’s are required by state law. A.C.A §§ 6-17-201 et seq. tells us that all school districts are supposed to publish personnel policies that define:
- Benefits;
- Compensation;
- Designation of workdays;
- Holidays and noninstructional days;
- The annual calendar;
- Methods of evaluations;
- Extra duties;
- Leave;
- Grievances;
- Dismissal or nonrenewal;
- Reduction in force; and
- Assignment of teacher aides.
The Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA) has been promoting these PPC’s to its members in LRSD. ASTA competes with the LREA for dues-paying members, then uses its members to support the union-busting, school-privatizing agenda of its major funder: the Walton Family Foundation. Apparently, ASTA’s efforts are working. One of ASTA’s member teachers, Lydia Dillon, had her “letter to the editor” published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (another major player in the school privatization movement in Arkansas) eight days prior to the SBoE vote against the LREA.
Sounds idyllic, right? But neither Lydia Dillon nor any of the other school-privatization ideologues have publicly admitted that PPC’s are a mirage.
In the United States, workers’ right to unionize is guaranteed by federal law. In Arkansas, educators’ right to be represented by a PPC is governed by state laws. The difference between federal laws and state laws is that state laws can be waived.
So far, more than 30 school districts and charter school operators have active waivers from laws governing PPC’s, personnel policies, and grievance procedures for teachers in Arkansas.
I’ve spent this week compiling a spreadsheet of the school districts and charter school operators who have received waivers from portions (or all) of the law governing personnel policies in Arkansas public schools.
As you can see, 20 districts aren’t required to have an elected PPC representing all teachers. 14 districts don’t have to write or distribute any personnel policies at all. 13 districts don’t consider personnel policies to be binding as part of their teachers’ contracts. 12 districts don’t give teachers the right to a grievance procedure or grievance hearings.
Don’t count on a PPC to represent teachers. Governor Asa Hutchinson and the Walton family are deliberately silencing teachers, while they deprofessionalize and privatize public education across the board. An “all-charter” LRSD is not their end game. These profiteers will not rest until unregulated, unaccountable private schools are the only available choice.
Good job Elizabeth. Keep writing! Thank you