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Background
In order for a school to have a great staff, the staff members must
be part of the decision-making in how the school is run. And one reason
Wisconsin has had such high quality school staff over the years is that
they have been involved, through collective bargaining, in decisions
about their schools.
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 The QEO law must be repealed.
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.
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.
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.
Governor Doyle included repeal of the QEO as part of his 2003-2005 biennial budget. The Joint Finance Committee called this “non-fiscal policy” and removed it from the budget. For the first time in 10 years, floor votes to repeal of the QEO happened during debate on final passage of the 2003-2005 budget. The budget amendments failed on straight party-line votes. The Assembly voted 39-58 and the Senate voted 15-18.
WEAC position
WEAC supports repeal of the Qualified Economic Offer law.
Talking points
The QEO is no reward for the nation’s best educators
The QEO is unfair and destroys the collective bargaining process
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 March 30, 2004