Roberts: Let County Supers Negotiate Teacher Contracts

ROBERTS: LET COUNTY SUPERS NEGOTIATE
TEACHER CONTRACTS
Speaker Says Executive County School Superintendents Should Be Empowered
To Negotiate Contracts, Cut Administrative Costs

(TRENTON) - Seeking to address the expenses associated with hundreds of different negotiations and the wide town-by-town disparities in education costs, Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. today proposed empowering the state's executive county school superintendents to negotiate countywide teacher contracts and to slash non-classroom administrative spending in schools.

Roughly 55 percent of the average New Jersey homeowner's property taxpayer bill goes to support local schools. Public education also accounts for roughly one-third of all state spending.

"Local school spending takes up the lion's share of every homeowner's property tax bill and the state budget," said Roberts (D-Camden). "Executive county school superintendents must be empowered to work on behalf of all schools and taxpayers to create level playing fields."

Roberts noted that each of New Jersey's more than 600 school districts negotiate their own contracts for teachers and educational support staff. By moving to a system of countywide negotiations, money required to hire the current army of lawyers and other professionals to oversee the contracting process could be saved and redirected either into the classroom or back to property taxpayers.

"Residents and teachers alike would be better represented by a system that puts collective bargaining around one countywide table, instead of hundreds of separate local deals that provide a windfall for lawyers, not taxpayers," said Roberts.

The Speaker said the current rules also can put districts in direct competition with each other for teachers.

"New Jersey is home to many of the nation's highest-achieving schools, but that success comes despite a balkanized negotiations process that pits neighboring districts against one another in a race to attract teachers," said Roberts.

Roberts proposes implementing countywide school contracts by the 2011-2012 academic year.  The executive county school superintendents would negotiate the pacts on behalf of  all school boards in that county. School district employees would likewise be represented by a countywide labor negotiating group.

Roberts also proposes directing executive county school superintendents to cut local school administrative costs by 10 percent over three years. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, New Jersey currently boasts the nation's third-highest average administrative costs - $1,393 per-pupil. The state Department of Education's 2008 Comparative Spending Guide reports the average school district spends 11 percent of its budget on administrative costs.

Under the Roberts plan, starting in the 2009-2010 school year, the current formula for determining appropriate administrative costs (per-pupil administrative cost limits for the district's region inflated by the cost of living or 2.5 percent, whichever is greater) would be scrapped. By the 2012-2013 school year, administrative spending could not exceed either the district's prior year per-pupil administrative cost or 90 percent of the prior year per-pupil regional administrative cost limits, whichever is lower.

In the year since the law creating the more powerful position of executive county superintendent of schools was created, 11 of the posts have been filled and four other nominees are awaiting Senate confirmation. The state Department of Education currently is vetting candidates for the remaining positions.

"Once all 'super' county supers are in place, they must be given the ability to aggressively combat the administrative overhead that saps classroom resources," said Roberts. "Executive county superintendents were created to make our schools run more efficiently and effectively. Now we must give them the tools to do the job."

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COUNTYWIDE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

Proposal:  Require schools districts to participate in countywide collective bargaining negotiations between county labor negotiating groups and the executive county superintendents of schools.

Problem:  Increases in education spending have been a major contributing factor to the rise in local property taxes.  School district employees' salaries and wages, which are determined by local collective bargaining units, make up a large percentage of education spending.   The current method of district-by-district collective bargaining is ineffective in controlling education spending.

• There are more than 600 school districts in New Jersey negotiating different contracts for school district employees.
• District-by-district contracts discourage shared services, including cooperative transportation, as recommended by the Commission on Business Efficiency of the Public Schools.
• District-by-district contracts also lead to outrageous contract provisions, e.g. paying school bus drivers six hours' guaranteed overtime every month to charge their cell phones.
• The staff time and legal fees involved in district-by-district collective bargaining costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
• On average, 55 percent of a homeowner's property taxes go to fund schools.
• In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, 34 percent of the state's budget was allocated to support pre-school through 12th grade education.
• In FY 2008, state aid to public schools was $10.9 billion.

Solution:  Conduct collective bargaining for school employees on a countywide basis.  The executive county superintendent of schools should conduct labor negotiations on behalf of all of the local school boards within that county.  Negotiations on behalf of local school district employees will be conducted by a county labor negotiating group, which will be comprised of authorized individual representatives of all school districts in the county.

Commencing in the 2011-2012 school year, the rates and schedules agreed to in collective bargaining for wages, salaries, and benefits will be uniform for every school district in a county, even if the employee's existing rate of pay is higher than uniform rates and schedules agreed to in collective bargaining.

10 PERCENT REDUCTION IN ADMINISTRATIVE SPENDING IN SCHOOLS

Proposal:  Require executive county superintendents of schools to reduce local district administrative spending by 10 percent in certain school districts within three years.

Problem:  New Jersey's 617 school districts have not done enough to reduce administrative spending and redirect those dollars into the classroom.  Under current law, a school district's per-pupil administrative costs may equal the prior year per-pupil administrative cost limits for the district's region inflated by the cost of living or 2.5 percent, whichever is greater.

• On average, $1,393 per-pupil is spent on administrative costs in New Jersey, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. (NCES)
• New Jersey administrative spending per-pupil ranks third highest in the nation. (NCES)
• Administrative spending in New Jersey schools range from as low as 6 percent to upwards of 17 percent according to the NJ 2008 Comparative Spending Guide.
• According to the NJ 2008 Comparative Spending Guide, 11 percent of all school district spending is for administrative costs, on average.
• Over $1.8 billion was spent on administrative costs last year in New Jersey, according to the NJ 2008 Comparative Spending Guide.

Solution:  Require a 10 percent reduction in the per-pupil administrative costs of certain school districts within three years.  To accomplish this, executive county superintendents would be empowered to ensure that the per-pupil administrative costs of a school district does not exceed the lower of either: the district's prior year per-pupil administrative costs; or 90 percent of the prior year per-pupil administrative cost limits for the district's region.  The three-year impact will be a reduction of 10 percent to the per-pupil administrative costs of districts that have reached the regional cost limit in school year.