Court: SRC can't cancel teachers' contract
Source: Philly.com
Kristen Graham
Posted: Thursday, January 22, 2015, 9:50 AM
Commonwealth Court judges have handed a win to the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, ruling that the School Reform Commission cannot throw out the teachers' union's contract and impose new terms. The decision was confirmed by Jerry Jordan, PFT president, on Thursday morning. "This is a very big victory," Jordan said.
In the decision, judges said that neither the state Public School Code nor the Legislature have expressly given the SRC the power to cancel its teachers' contract.
"This Court is cognizant of the dire financial situation which the District currently faces and the SRC’s extensive efforts to achieve the overall goal of properly and adequately meeting the educational needs of the students," Judge Patricia A. McCullough wrote for the court. "There have been numerous difficult decisions that the SRC has been forced to make in an effort to overcome these economic hurdles, including a one-third reduction in staff and the closing of 31 schools in recent years."
However, the court concluded, "glaringly absent" from the law "is is a referenceto a provision which expressly gives the SRC the right to cancel" a collective bargaining agreement.
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/school_files/District-cant-impose-contract-court-rules.html
It is expected that there may be an appeal.
As of this past Tuesday, we have a new Democratic governor who campaigned on education, and there has finally been some discussions over the past couple months, about the city taking back their school system (technically the law allows the city to take control back IF they provide a "plan" for how the district will be run). This SRC ("School Reform Commission"
crap has been going on for 14 years now and it's been a nightmare!
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Shouldn't every worker have a contract too?
