Bloated Teacher Contracts Much To Blame For Issues In Highland Park, Muskegon

Bloated Teacher Contracts Much To Blame For Issues In Highland Park, Muskegon [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
Highland Park’s mostrecent teacher contract begins by granting special privileges to the local union,including:
Using the district’s payroll system toautomatically deduct and deliver union dues from employee paychecks;
Carrying the union president as something not far from apart-time “ghost employee” who gets paid to conduct union business for half theday;
Handing over to the union all the details ofdistrict’s finances; and
Agreeing to fire any teacher who evades payingunion dues.
The contract then guarantees a “single salary schedule,”which pays teachers in the same manner as industrial assembly line workers,with no regard for individual performance or merit.
This pay schedule mandated that most teachers got annualraises of 5 percent to 9 percent, simply for keeping their jobs for another year. Moresuch rewards were guaranteed by permanent pay bumps when an employee reached 15,20 and 25 years on the payroll.

The district also paid out extra money for various functionssuch as “teacher coordinator,” “curriculum council member,” “psychologicaldiagnostician” and high school “senior sponsor.”