Much of the blame for declining education services rests with the teachers’ unions and those who allowed them to hijack the priorities and budgets of school districts.
Unions rake in millions of dollars each year with which to pull the district’s focus to their organizational interests, and sometimes these interests end up thwarting the leadership team’s objectives and financial priorities.
The recent round of strikes and budget-breaking pay raises have damaged many schools’ ability to serve families. Consequently, the boards of financially strapped districts are forced to cut services and increase taxes.
The Freedom Foundation has developed resources, policy models and strategies to help school leadership teams keep its operations focused on school improvement goals. We welcome the opportunity to help local leaders be effective for students and families.
We can help districts find ways to balance the union agenda with the public interests in policy and budget decisions.
We have conducted research, sued unions, developed laws, drafted bargaining agreement language, argued unfair labor practices, conducted marketing campaigns and advised employees who feel they’re not well-served by their union.
On Friday, the Freedom Foundation had a resource table at the Washington State School Directors conference. At this three-day event, hundreds of elected school board members and school Superintendents attended to gather information about how to manage schools in the public interest.
We promoted collective bargaining transparency, school bargaining best practices and a new resource we are launching — a searchable library of collective bargaining agreements.
