Tennessee House Republicans clear way to end collective bargaining for teachers

Richard Locker:

House Republican leaders have backed away from an earlier stand that teachers be allowed to continue collective bargaining on base salaries and benefits, clearing the way for total repeal of bargaining between teachers and school boards.

The Tennessee Education Association, which represents 52,000 of the state's 65,000 public classroom teachers, plans to continue lobbying House members before Tuesday's key committee vote in hopes of a last-ditch compromise. But TEA spokesman Jerry Winters said teacher morale "is horrible" and warned that if the negotiations law is repealed, "we're going to make sure that they go before these school boards and wear them out on some of these issues."

The Senate will likely approve the repeal bill Monday, after deferring its planned vote Thursday to give members time to review another new amendment by the bill's sponsor. Minutes later, House Speaker Beth Harwell endorsed the Senate version, which she said resulted from talks with House Republican leaders.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 2, 2011 2:40 AM
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