From The Gazette (Colorado Springs): The public’s business should be conducted in public. This common-sense traditional American value gets lost on most leaders of teachers unions, who prefer to strike deals with school boards behind closed doors.
In Colorado, 80 percent of public schools hold binding negotiations with school boards, and nearly all do so in secret. It’s not good for teachers, students or taxpayers. It mostly makes life easier for union leaders and their lawyers, who don’t want public scrutiny.
The battle raged locally just three years ago, when the Colorado Springs Education Association fought the District 11 school board’s efforts to open negotiations for the benefit of the public, students and teachers. Defenders of open government prevailed only after heated meetings, a lawsuit, pickets in the parking lot and a groundswell of public pressure in support of the board’s transparency plan.
Similar struggles have played out throughout the state, most recently with high-profile showdowns in Jefferson and Douglas Counties.
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