EmailThe cash-strapped Philadelphia school district abruptly canceled its teachers’ contract on Monday, a bold move designed to force healthcare contributions and make other benefit cuts.
The announcement came at a hastily called meeting of the state-run school reform commission and followed nearly two years of stalled labor talks.
District officials said they have no plans to cut wages of the 15,000 teachers, nurses and other members of the Philadelphia federation of teachers. The American federation of teachers called the decision “a well-planned Hail Mary ambush” by Republican governor Tom Corbett, who faces a tough re-election fight next month.
“Corbett’s School Reform Commission has amped up a war on teachers and support staff,” AFT president Randi Weingarten and AFT-Pa president Ted Kirsch said in a statement. “The commission would rather attempt to impose a contract than work with teachers to figure out what is best for Philadelphia’s kids.”
All but the lowest-paid workers would pay 10 to 15% of the premiums for a modified healthcare plan, and pay more to “buy up” to a current plan, the news release said. Officials said the benefit concessions were on a par with those made by administrators and other workers. However, they said they needed teachers to make the same healthcare concessions that administrators, blue-collar workers and others in the district have made.
Superintendent William Hite said he supports the move. He expected the teacher health care contributions to yield more than $50m in savings and new funding per school year.
The district has closed 31 schools, cut 5,000 positions and cut spending by nearly $1bn in recent years, officials said.
“Philadelphia families have made extraordinary sacrifices: students come to school every day in buildings that lack critical resources necessary for teaching and learning,” SRC chairman William J Green said.
Only a few dozen people attended the surprise session Monday morning, according to parent activist Helen Gym, who said she only learned of the meeting at midnight.
“It’s a disgrace in terms of public governance and democracy,” said Gym, the co-founder of Parents United for Public Education.
“As parents, we’re obviously concerned, because the only thing that is really holding our schools together right now is the teachers and staff,” she said. “I just don’t know how we’re going to sustain and keep a talented teaching force without a contract.”
