Dave Umhoefer鈥檚 O鈥橞rien Fellowship in 2015-16 examined the impact on public school teaching of the controversial Wisconsin law (Act 10) that all but eliminated collective bargaining by teachers and other government employees.
The 鈥溾�� series, published in the鈥疢ilwaukee Journal Sentinel, found that five years after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker鈥檚 collective bargaining law took effect, superintendents are firmly in control as union influence fades.
The stories found increases in teacher turnover, a sharp decline in union influence, the rise of merit pay programs and signing bonuses, and a gap between richer and poorer districts in the new competition for teachers.
Umhoefer was assisted by Marquette students Sarah Hauer, Brittany Carloni and Stephanie Harte and faculty member Robert J. Griffin. The series won a second-place award for education writing in the National Headliner Awards.
: Reporters Dave Umhoefer and Sarah Hauer and editor Greg Borowski talk about the "Act 10 at Five" project.
Depending on the observer, Gov. Scott Walker鈥檚 2011 push to virtually end collective bargaining in most of the public sector amounted to an overdue restoration of management authority, a hostile takeover of schools 鈥� or both.鈥疻alker says Act 10 freed up public school leaders to 鈥減ut the best and the brightest in our classrooms.鈥� It鈥檚 not that simple, a Journal Sentinel review of the law鈥檚 effects found.
Milwaukee Public Schools teachers, students and city taxpayers didn鈥檛 feel the full effect of Act 10 right away. The MPS contract with the teachers union remained in effect until June 2013, two years after the measure passed. But change came. Under the law, MPS accelerated its drive to push down benefit costs. That began earlier, when full collective bargaining existed.
Half of school chiefs view Act 10鈥檚 clampdown on collective bargaining as positive, compared to one-third who saw it as negative. Two-thirds of Journal Sentinel survey respondents don鈥檛 want a return to the pre-Act 10 world. The superintendents are three times more likely to disagree that Act 10 reduced teaching quality as agree.
Search by district to see how costs, teacher staffing, enrollment and teacher pay have changed since 2011, the year Act 10 abolished most collective bargaining.
The intensifying competition for teachers has created a split between the 鈥渉aves鈥� 鈥� districts that can outbid neighbors or boast other advantages 鈥� and the 鈥渉ave-nots,鈥� lower-paying areas limited by finances, geography and other factors.
By Dave Umhoefer 鈥� Nationally, no state has lost more of its labor union identity than Wisconsin since 2011, a Journal Sentinel analysis found. Union members made up 14.2% of workers before Act 10, but just 8.3% in 2015. That was nearly double the drop of Alaska, the runner up.
By Dave Umhoefer and Brittany Carloni 鈥� Officials on both sides say the process is now clearly tipped in favor of the districts 鈥� most of which have lowered the bar for proving their own case, a Journal Sentinel review of policies in 100 randomly selected districts found.
By Brittany Carloni 鈥� In a power shift stemming from collective bargaining limits under Act 10, most public school teachers have weaker appeal rights when facing disciplinary action. Under the old system, independent arbitrators usually had the last word in determining punishment. School administrators and school board members now are firmly in control.
Wisconsin has seen the steepest decline in concentration of union members in the workforce since 2011 of any state in the U.S. Going back to 2005, the state has seen the number of union members fall by 187,000. Nationally, union membership fell from 15.7 million in 2005 to 14.8 million in 2015.
By Dave Umhoefer and Sarah Hauer 鈥� In 2015, four years after the law鈥檚 collective-bargaining limits reshaped the profession, the smallest group of juniors and seniors in two decades was enrolled in teaching programs at the state鈥檚 public universities. Some 25 percent of school districts are reporting an 鈥渆xtreme shortage鈥� of job-seekers for key positions. Teaching is 鈥渘o longer considered an attractive career path鈥� for many top students, educators warned state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers.
By Dave Umhoefer 鈥� This six-part series examines a critical period in Walker鈥檚 career with an eye toward better understanding what led him to seek curbs on unions.
Dave Umhoefer and Sarah Hauer present key findings on Wisconsin's teacher turnover five years after the implementation of Act 10.
