School superintendents stymied by teacher labor contracts?

A new study says most of the country’s 50 largest school systems, including Maryland’s Prince George’s County, have restrictive labor agreements, tying the hands of superintendents who want to pay more to top teachers and transfer them between schools according to need.

Area school systems generally fared well in the survey. But Prince George’s County, which the study said bars school leaders from retaining a skilled young teacher over one with greater seniority in the event of layoffs and requires the system to give internal job applicants priority for vacant positions, was ranked 47th and rated “highly restrictive.”

The study produced by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a District-based think tank that studies educational policy, added fuel to an ongoing debate over whether there is a need for more management-friendly contracts that allow superintendents to reward skill over seniority as school systems seek to meet the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Read the article in The Washington Post online.