From Sky-Hi News (Grand County):  Should collective bargaining between local teachers unions and school districts be open to the public?

It is a question Coloradans will decide on the November ballot when they consider Proposition 104.

Proposition 104 states, “Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes requiring any meeting of a board of education, or any meeting between any representative of a school district and any representative of employees, at which a collective bargaining agreement is discussed to be open to the public?”

“We are for local control,” said East Grand School District Superintendent Jody Mimmack, Ph.D. “Prop. 104 takes that control away. The Colorado Association of School Boards opposed 104. The Colorado Association of School Executives also opposes the proposition. I cannot speak for the Board but I personally oppose Prop. 104 because school districts in the state of Colorado are supposed to remain under local control and this puts control further back into state mandates.”

Jon Caldara, President of the Independence Institute, the organization that got Prop. 104 on the ballot, spoke in favor of the measure.

“Secrecy is the enemy of good government,” Caldara said. “Colorado has a long tradition of demanding transparency in government. About 85 percent of what school boards spend is decided in contract with the union. Done often behind closed doors. This is not a constitutional change. It is a change in statute.

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