The battle continues in Idaho over education reform and changes in collective bargaining. We are not alone in Idaho with the debates and rallies over these issues and in fact we are being overshadowed with what is going on in Wisconsin and other states. What we have to realize through these debates is that there are several "stakeholders" in all of this. There are the employees (teachers), parents, taxpayers, legislators and of course the most important - students.

Jim Ballew's article in The Press on Feb. 26 was excellent and he and his committee deserve our thanks for their time and conclusions. Jim concentrated on several areas including the financial costs included in the teachers union contract that were more generous than other districts and the mistake of not having an outside negotiator representing the district. Not only, as Jim pointed out, is there an inherent conflict of interest with employee negotiators, but you also have personality issues and conflicts arise that can continue throughout the working relationship. I would like to take this a step further and discuss the provisions in the teachers union contract that also have a "cost" to the total education program.

For a good teacher this is a very demanding profession and requires tremendous energy and dedication every day. We also know from studies that having a good teacher in the classroom the students can achieve up to 150 percent of the achievement goals. A poor teacher will often have the class at barely 50 percent of standard. We would know then how important it is to have a good teacher in the classroom each day; we lose ground with a substitute.

The contract is for a 190-day work year and when you back out staff meeting/workdays and early release days the students are in class significantly less than the days in the school year. Let's take a look at time off for teachers in the Cd'A school district:

Personal Leave: Each employee receives two days for personal business and this can accumulate up to five days. Interestingly the superintendent can give an additional three days of leave and increase the accumulated leave. Basically this means this is the policy because once you provide this to an employee you are going to be hard pressed to deny anyone else this leave without inviting a grievance charging discrimination.

Professional Leave: The district is required to provide leaves for professional development.

Sick Leave: Each teacher receives 10 days per year that accumulate up to 350 days. There is a sick leave bank for those teachers who run out of days. (Disability leave is available after nine consecutive sick days.)

Incentive Leave: If a teacher does not use his sick days during the year he can use two days as an "incentive leave." These days can accumulate up to five days and these can be "cashed out" at the substitute rate.

Bereavement Leave: Each teacher receives up to five days for the death of immediate family which is expansive and even includes "a resident of the household of said employee." I suppose that could be the guy who rents a room in your house or of course that "same sex partner" or whatever. One day is allowed for the death of a "personal friend." Additional days can be given at the discretion of the superintendent - another invitation for a future grievance.

Union President Leave: As I mentioned in a previous column the local union president receives up to two days a week off to take care of union business, along with a district-provided cell phone.

You can do the math on this. At $65 a day for a substitute, a teacher who is using personal days, incentive days and has a "friend" die costs taxpayers an additional $325. This doesn't include the cost of cashing out sick leave accumulation at retirement or other costs.

The dollar cost is not the most important cost. The most important issue is that we continue to give more and more paid leave and do not have the trained teacher in the classroom, to the detriment of the children. We give incentives for showing up to work and not for performance. There should be penalties for not being in the classroom, outside of sickness, and rewards for doing an outstanding job.

One last comment: If you haven't rented or downloaded the movie "Waiting For Superman," do it soon. This film is an outstanding documentary on education today.

Bob Shillingstad taught in high schools in Montana for 13 years, then assisted Montana school districts with labor relations and personnel issues for two years. He then spent a career as a partner with a multi-national firm prior to retiring. He resides in Kootenai County.