Kitzhaber Wanted to Strip Teachers of Ability to Strike

Oregon House leaders on Tuesday announced that they'd approved a $7.255 billion schools budget for the next two years as the state's financial commitment to K-12 education. Schools advocates say they want more—and that could set up a battle for the remainder of the 2015 legislative session.

But many people believe the amount the state spends on schools is not the biggest money issue in Oregon education. Instead, it's the tension between the Legislature, which doles out the state support for schools, and local school boards that decide how to spend the money. 

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber recognized the problem. Local districts negotiate their own contracts with teachers' unions. Kitzhaber believed that as long as the Oregon Education Association, the 45,000 member teachers' union, prevailed over local school boards—and it often does—districts will continue to spend money faster than the state can send it to them. 

Kitzhaber called this problem “the disconnect.” 

The emails that a Kitzhaber aide sought to destroy in February, eight days before the governor announced his resignation, show Kitzhaber had a plan to try to end this problem.

"This cannot wait until after November 4 and it has budget and political implications for 2015 and beyond," Kitzhaber wrote to his labor adviser, Duke Shepard, in a Sept. 7, 2014, email obtained by WW. He asked Shepard to put all the elements of the disconnect down in a memo to prepare for the 2015 Legislature. 

"1. Make sure that our entire education team (and budget team) understands this and recognizes the need to address it," Kitzhaber told Shepard in the email. "2. Develop a powerful white paper that lays out the problem statement without out prescribing solutions."

As part of his plan to end the state of perpetual K-12 funding crisis, Kitzhaber wanted to take away one of the biggest tools the teachers' union tool box—the ability to strike.

The threat of a strike looms over teacher contract negotiations all across Oregon. In 2014, the Portland Association of Teachers voted to strike, a threat that forced the settlement of a long and brutal contract negotiation with Portland Public Schools. The strike threat helped force PPS' hand in settling with teachers.

Kitzhaber wanted lawmakers to pass a law that would make it illegal for teachers to strike. Here's the rationale for the move in a Sept. 19, 2014, memo that Shepard prepared in response to Kitzhaber's request:

Before Kitzhaber won re-election for a fourth term as governor on Nov. 4, 2014, he ordered up a bill that would end teachers' ability to strike.

Here's a summary of the bill concept, dated Nov. 3, 2014.

But after Democrats in both chambers widened their majorities in November—in no small part thanks to generous contributions from the Oregon Education Association—Kitzhaber decided not to move forward with the bill.

WWeek 2015