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Unfortunately, the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) law has taken decision-making power away from teachers and it is having a negative impact on the quality of our schools.
If Wisconsin is to recruit and retain the best and the brightest educators, it must restore fairness to the state bargaining law. The QEO law must be repealed.
The QEO law provides a method that school boards can use to limit teacher compensation. It was enacted in 1993 along with the revenue cap law, which restricts the revenue school districts can raise to pay for operating schools. The law applies only to K-12 teachers.
Under the QEO law, school boards have two options for setting teacher pay and benefits. Either impose a QEO by offering at least a 3.8 percent settlement (combined as an increase of 2.1 percent on salary and 1.7 percent on benefits). Under the QEO law, teachers cannot petition to take the contract to arbitration and they cannot strike or negotiate with teachers using collective bargaining.
If teachers reject the QEO proposal, the school board can impose it, leaving teachers with no legal means to achieve resolution. Moreover, once wages and benefits have been set and a minimum QEO is offered, teachers lack the bargaining leverage to effectively negotiate other compensation or education issues such as class size, preparation time, professional development, or student discipline.
Actual practice shows that when districts impose a QEO, the stated increases do not show up in teacher paychecks. This is because (1) teacher salaries are a function of salary schedules, not only the QEO; and (2) many districts use "cast forward costing," a process prescribed in the QEO law. This is how it works: Every year, as experienced teachers retire or move on, they are replaced by less experienced teachers with lower salaries and benefits. The district, however, advances these more expensive "ghost" teachers on the salary schedule in projecting costs for the next two-year contract.
This phenomenon is one reason that, since the QEO went into effect, Wisconsin teachers have averaged a 1.9 percent annual salary increase, well below the 3 percent inflation rate during this period.
Legislative history
The 1999-2001 state budget contained WEAC-supported modifications to
the QEO. The law changed so that costs of educational attainment (lane
movements) are no longer counted as part of a QEO. WEAC also fought
for and won other modifications to the QEO law as part of the 2001-2003
state budget. These changes protected permissive subjects in bargaining
and required the Wisconsin Employment Relations Council to define a
timely bona fide QEO. Governor McCallum, however, vetoed all the changes.
Another bill, 2001 Senate Bill 200, was introduced to repeal the QEO. The bill received 25 co-sponsors in the Legislature. More than 1,300 WEAC members and supporters attended a public hearing in June 2001 to register in favor of the bill.
WEAC position
The Wisconsin Education Association Council supports repeal of the Qualified
Economic Offer law.
Talking points
The QEO harms the quality of public education:
The QEO negates collective bargaining:
The QEO is unfair:
Additional information
Contact Bob Burke at WEAC at 800-362- 8034 ext. 254 or by e-mail at
burkeb@weac.org with any reactions,
comments or questions.
Posted July 26, 2002