Denver Teachers Sated

Any last outside chances that there would be a teachers strike in Denver this year all but evaporated yesterday as 1,767 members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) voted to accept the bargained contract and only 617 voted against. Roughly 600 DCTA members did not vote. Of the district’s 4,200 teachers, about 3,000 belong to DCTA.

Teachers get back a lost step on the salary schedule, a pay increase, more planning time, and more say in areas of professional development and instruction. Meanwhile, the district and union have planned to phase out the salary schedule with the new ProComp performance-based pay plan, the funding of which has to be approved by voters in November.

The brewing tensions within the district during February, March, and April brought attention to a short paper I wrote last year for the Independence Institute – No Work, No Pay: The Lesson of the 1994 Denver Teachers’ Strike – and to radio appearances with John Andrews and Mike Rosen.

Personally, I’m glad the strike was averted. Yet we still have to roll up our sleeves and continue the work of education reform.