Three School Districts, Three Days

which they live. One portion of that social contract is the taxpayers pay taxes, primarily real estate taxes in most Massachusetts communities, to support the essential services, which include fire, police EMTs. Your house catches fire, there's a robber coming in your house, someone is choking, or someone is having a metal emergency, you want to think that there'll be a fire truck that pulls up, a police car or

some sort of an ambulance. One of the other parts of the social contract is if you have children, or if you live in the community, you support the school system, and school systems in public school systems in Massachusetts are quite expensive compared to many other states around the country. But we pride ourselves on the quality of the public

school systems. We have very active teachers unions here in Massachusetts, including the MTA, which are embarked on a very successful ballot initiative this past fall in which they knocked out the MCST tests, the Comprehensive Assessment Survey, and I suspect that we will see the teachers' union becoming more and more active. Right now, there are three communities that tonight are trying to figure out what will their kids do tomorrow in Marblehead, Gloucester, in Beverly because school is out,

because the teachers' union is on strike. Now, I'm not particularly interested in trying to negotiate on behalf of the school committees or on behalf of the teachers union. The teachers union always wants more money. That's understandable. That's understandable. However, However, most people view benefits of being a teacher compensating, maybe for not making a million dollars a year. Teachers do not make a million dollars a year. They are highly compensated.

In most or in many Massachusetts communities. They make six figures. They work from September to June. They have I would say a fairly ample number of vacation days holidays during the year. They work about one hundred and eighty school days. They have in many respects on the ability to carry over their sick days. They can once called bank days. They have all sorts of parental leave when they have

a welcome a child. There are a lot of companies that do not provide parental lead, certainly not paid parental leave. And the teacher unions now are flexing their muscles in Massachusetts, and we will see more more teacher strikes in Massachusetts in the days, in the weeks, and the months and

the years ahead. Last winter, there was a nearly three week teacher strike in the city of Newton, and at that time Mayor Ruth Ann Fuller was beside herself because teachers in Newton are very well compensated, and of course eventually the strike was settled. The bottom line is the teachers' union and the teachers are paid through the city

by the taxpayers, simple as that. So when there's a teacher strike, besides the inconvenience that inflict on the family and on the students, it also means that at the end of the day, the cost will be incurred by the residents of that particular community. Oh, there's some other revenue streams that come in, but the bulk of the money, the salaries that teachers receive, come from the taxpayers in

their respective communities. Now, if you've noticed, and maybe you haven't if you haven't been paying attention, but most often teachers strikes occur at two points during the school year. They either occur when the school year commences in September, or they now occur during the school year. So the teachers striking Newton and end Over, and I think there was wubrin if I'm not mistaken, they occurred during the school year, and you have now three communities up on

the north Shore, Beverly, Gloucester and marble Head. I don't want to say that those three strikes are coordinated, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were, because of the geographic proximity of those three communities. So I made a simple proposal last night, and I kind of came to it during the program, and I want to hear if you agree or disagree with me in this. We have a legislature in Massachusetts that does not want to stand

up to the teachers' unions. With that we know, okay, the teachers' unions are now one of the most powerful political organizations in Massachusetts. We've invited the head of the teachers' union, the mass Teachers Association, to commit and join us. He's more than welcome any night. His name is Max Page. We'd be more than happy to have him come on and discuss what the teachers' unions really are looking for.

If you're interested, go to the Massachusetts Department of Education slash teacher salaries and you can see how much teachers the average teacher in the school system the community in which you live receive. Okay, you'll find that interesting. Make note that the statistics there are from calendar year twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. For those of you paying attention, it is now November of twenty twenty four, so those statistics, those salaries, as generous as they as they appear, are

already three years old. So I have a simple solution to avoid what is being inflicted on people, families, students and parents in Marblehead, Gloucester and Beverly, and that is this. Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts, but it doesn't matter. I believe that at least two of the teachers' union should have been in court today. Listening to the various news stations tonight, it didn't appear that those court hearings occurred.

And that's often the case. A judge says, you got to be back, we've got to stop this strike by noon on Tuesday. Well, noon on Tuesday comes, and noon on Tuesday and Wednesday comes. Occasionally there's a judge who will stand up to the teachers union, but that's some few and far between. So here's my simple proposal. If let us say a contract, a teacher's contract in any Massachusetts community is to end, they all end on June thirtieth,

at the end of the of the school year. So what I would suggest is that the union and the school committees should be informed by the state legislature that one year before the contract is supposed to be renewed, which would be the following September first. So when when the final year of the school contract is about to begin on September first, the previous July in August, the union and the school committee or whoever's the bargaining agent have to spend some time not during the school year

but in July and August negotiating. Now, if they can negotiate an agreement a year ahead of time, that's great, much better than negotiating an agreement a year into the contract, which of course makes it possible for them to strike during the year. Now, let's assume that they have. Let's just use as an example. Let's assume that these contracts were due to be renewed on September first of this year,

which I think they were. That means that a year ago, in the summer of twenty twenty three, July and August the twenty twenty three, there should have been contract conversations, serious discussions begun. If they completed their negotiations successfully and everybody was happy, which is unlikely because one side will always fight the other, then they start in September. They would have started in this September to the final year of the contract. Okay, so the contract ends. The last

year of the contract ends on June thirtieth. On that next summer, the union and the school committee is forced to negotiate, and that negotiation would be overseen by some sort of a mediator or an arbiter, and eventually it would be binding arbitration, which would mean sometime around August fifteenth, the arbiter would say to both the union and to this community, I want your last and final offer, and

then the arbiter would decide what the contract will be. Okay, now I know that that would drive the union crazy, it probably would drive the school committee's crazy, but it

would force an agreement binding arbitration. So that means that if there would be an incentive built in for both to be more reasonable and if they weren't, if let's say the union said we want ten, twelve and fourteen percent of the next three year contract and the community offered I don't know, you know, two four and six on a three year contract, then it would be after the arbit to decide which it is, and the arbita could go completely for the school committee or go completely

for the union. I'll be somewhere in between. That is my humble proposal, because if that proposal was ever adopted by our legislature, it would ensure that there would be no strikes during the school year because one the negotiations would have occurred a year ahead of time, would have begun a here ahead of time, and they would have to have been done in July and August during summer vacation, so the union leaders they would have an incentive to

get the negotiations over with, as would the school committee. I think it's a pretty simple idea, and I think that it is one that we should look at very seriously here in Massachusetts. Now, I'm going to open up the phone lines. I'm going to hope that I hear from you. If you agree with me and you think it's a good idea, tell me. If you disagree with me, tell me why. Bottom line is there is a social contract.

I'll come back to where I started. This is not the UAW, the Autoworkers of America on the line, This is not Boeing, This is not even radio and TV stations employees. This is a social contract that exists between the community and the teachers. No one has drafted these teachers to become teachers. No one has forced them to become teachers. They have asked and studied to become teachers. There's a lot of benefits to being a teacher. One

of them is not you know, million dollar salaries. Now, if you work long enough, if you work thirty years, you can make three four million dollars as a teacher, and you're going to get a really good pension at the end of the day. But your job is to educate kids and not go out and strike during the school year. Six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. I am

deadly serious. This is what should be adopted. I'm sure there will be people who will of all sorts of objections. That's fine, let's hear them, let's get them out on the table, and I'm sure there'll be some people out there are going to say that's a pretty good idea. Give me a call. Six one seven, two, five four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. I'm trying to make you think that I don't care what you think. I just want to make sure you're thinking.

I thought about this last night. This is what I've come up with. Come up with your own idea, come up, let's but let's talk about it back here on Nightside right after this.

Sometimes you're going to get a kid in a classroom. It was tough to deal with. I want you to have support on that. But at the same time, you have engaged in a social contract. You have said I want to be a teacher. I want to be a teacher because I want to teach kids, not because I want to walk up picket line. Let's go to the calls.

Agree to disagree, that's fine, it's I just want to have a conversation because I think this is going to be soon a very critical subject for people in Massachusetts to look at and consider and actually come to a conclusion. Justin and Marlborough, Justin, thanks for calling in. How are you tonight?

be double the twenty thousand. Then it will be double to forty thousand. So what happens is sometimes when they finally do settle, the judge will say, okay, you have settled. We're going to cut the fines back to ten thousand dollars and that'll be paid by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and of course it'll eventually be recaptured in the dues from the from the teachers, because the dues are going to go up. And everybody kind of figures it's a wash,

but it's just not fair. The people who are victimized here are the kids and the parents of kids. Most parents work during the day, you know, particularly if the kids are older, maybe they have a babysitter but lined up, or what happens if if they don't have a babysitter lined up during the school day because they assume that kids are going to be in school. What do they do for their job? It's it's it's nothing.

start your negotiation a year in advance. If so happens that you come to an agreement, that's great, that provides continuity of school. If you don't get together on an agreement a year in advance, then the summer before you got to go back to school without a contract. I don't want teachers going back to school without a contract. You got to have a negotiation. And it's only in

July and August, okay, and on August fifteenth. If you haven't come to an agreement, if everything hasn't been decided, if everything hasn't been decided, then you are going to submit to the to the arbiter or the mediator, you know, be compulsory or compulsory arbitration, compulsory mediation, and they will decide. So it's the same way that goes on in professional sports when a player and a team kind of agree, depending upon the situation. Sometimes they say to a player,

go ahead, go find somewhere else. You can't do that with teachers. You can't do it with teachers. But we got to do something that's going to change the dynamic and stop the teacher strikes for the sake for truly, for the sake of the students, and for the sake of the parents and the families of the students. I firmly believe in what I'm saying. I hope you'll agree or disagree. I don't care which, but I'd love to hear from you coming back on Nightside.

idea about forcing them to have the negotiations? Seems to me like they always wait till they've been working without a contract for six months, and I just think that's dumb. Get it done early.

what you were paid when you were a teacher. So I don't mind seeing teachers having competitive salaries. I mean I would support that.

and I had a minor teaching certificate. And at that time, teachers, this was in the nineteen seventies, you could look forward to making maybe twenty thousand dollars as a starting teacher, and I thought to myself, Wow, twenty thousand dollars over career thirty years, that's going to be six hundred thousand dollars. Obviously, salaries have increased across the board since then as well

they should. But teachers now, on average in Massachusetts, you know, there are exceptions, but you can look at the Department of Education statistics can eighty ninety thousand dollars on average. Now, starting teachers make less, experienced teachers make more, but on average eighty ninety thousand dollars, and many teachers now make in excess of one hundred thousand dollars, which is fine.

I don't have a problem with that, but I think that those salaries should be decided in advance of a school year and the teacher should not use the students as leverage. That's what I'm saying.

what happens in the situation. In situation likeage, the school committee as part of the agreement. You know, at that point we're all singing Kumbai yah and the glad that the strike is over. So the union has all the leverage here in my opinion. In my opinion, Claudette, thank you for what you did as a teacher. I'm sure that you have a lot of pride in the young men and women who you run into today at the grocery store or on the street, and they'll say, hey,

how are you remember me? I was a student of yours.

Marlborough from different different experiences. For me, that's the best part of the day when I get a chance to talk with you. But during the day it can be agonizing. What what stories are we going to cover? What are we going to do? Are people going to be interested in this? You know, I'm not getting overwhelmed with phone calls on this topic, but I'm sticking with it because I think it's an incredibly important topic, not only for

the Comwalth of Massachusetts. It's important for the teachers' unions. It's important for the students, and it's important for the parents. This is not the sexiest topic in the world to talk about, Claudette, but I'm.

want you to think think about this. This is a proposal that I think is important, not because I came up with it, but it is a reform that we could consider here in Massachusetts which might make life easier for parents, for students, and for teachers. The union won't support this, I guarantee you that. I guarantee you that, but if teachers think about it, they'll realize this will make their lives easier and it'll make their students' lives better.

And that's what I think. Good teachers are all about. Will be back on Nightside right after this.

either side first requested to Bogging about the contract. You know, was it at the end of the school year or was it beforehand?

You know, in professional sports, if you're a professional athlete, the team has to offer you a contract by a certain data you become a free agent. They you know, they got to make a decision, and then you've got to decide by a certain date if you want to

accept that offer or not. There are there are there were rules and regulations imposed because if you did that, the Red Sox would open the season in April and half the team would be minor league Baseball players and the lot of the guys would be sitting sitting at home waiting for a contract offer. It'say, now, no, I'm just no, no, but I just they were just say, you're joking here, but you want to see your best players on the field on opening day. Same way with

the Patriots. You know, they got to report the camp by a certain date, and if they don't report the camp by a certain date, they get fot. I mean, it just makes common sense is what I'm truly trying to say, And so that's.

check on me every Saturday. So ninety or one hundred percent of all the teachers there are women, and there are good people, and they deserve the best.

a parent. You said you were the parent of a daughter, single dad, How would you like to have been I assume you probably were working and your daughter went off to school, and you went off to work and the difficult set of circumstances. I get it. How would you like to have seen the Quincy teachers you and you go out and strike? How would you be able to take care of your daughter during the day and still go to work. You couldn't do both things simultaneously, right.