By Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline
October 23, 2006

On October 13, I hosted - in cooperation with the Broad Foundation and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, the Providence Public Schools and the Providence Teachers Union - a forum to develop a roadmap for a new level of collaboration among the key stakeholders in public education.

Building a strong partnership with the superintendent, teachers, union leadership, civic organizations, parents and business is critical in order to succeed in improving and transforming educational opportunities and experiences provided by our public schools. The forum was the beginning of a series of conversations we are having with stakeholders.

At our conference, I posed two questions to frame the discussion: “How do we get union leaders and management to move beyond the adversarial approach to contract negotiations to a collaborative model premised on a collective mission? How do we move from disagreement to consensus in order to accelerate school improvement?”

Attending the daylong event were mayors, superintendents, union representatives, parents, educational advocates, reform experts and other leaders from the Northeast, who shared their insights on new directions and innovative strategies for education financing reform, labor-management relations and effective school practices. The discussion included a frank exchange about lessons we are learning in Providence, as we build this new collaborative relationship. I was especially appreciative of the active participation of PTU President Steve Smith. He is demonstrating an extraordinary commitment to the children of Providence and the great teachers he represents.

This new approach is based upon the premise that the contract should treat teachers as professionals, not as factory workers doing piece work – the old industrial model. We are committed to a different approach to collective bargaining: I see this process as key to building a good relationship among the city, school system and its teachers, resulting in benefits to everyone, most importantly our students.

“Most teacher contracts are like bad marriages,” said Linda Kaboolian, from the Harvard University Kennedy School. “They reflect deep wounds that have festered for a long time, and the contract is the scar tissue of the relationship.” The contract-renewal process viewed improving student achievement as a shared problem, which meant it became an outcome to be measured as part of compensation.

As Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said during the Forum, “For this collaboration to be successful, (it) requires building trust, an openness of values, communication and agreeing to disagree at times but it will not destroy the working relationship.” In Providence, we have begun to develop these practices with the signing of our last teachers’ contract; Boston has been taking this approach for several years.

One of the uniformly-agreed upon statements at the Forum was made by Adam Urbanski, President of the Rochester Teachers Association and founder of the Teacher Union Reform Network. “You can’t accomplish true education reform, unless you change what happens to children’s lives before and after school. That means doing more in areas of early childhood, after school programs, health and housing.” As every other city represented, we understand this is something we need to do more of and with the Providence After School Alliance (PASA,) we are making important inroads. Mayors across the country always take a leading role in these issues.

Stamford (CT) Mayor Dannel Malloy prodded the audience to debate; “If student achievement is so critical, then why don’t school boards and unions include language on student achievement in their teacher contracts? In many cities and towns, unions and school boards do not have cooperative relationships and so accountability must be written into the contract.”

Also lending their considerable experience to this important conversation were mayors Eddie Perez of Hartford, John Fabrizi of Bridgeport, Scott Avedisian of Warwick and A. Ralph Mollis of North Providence; superintendents from the cities of Boston, Buffalo, Bridgeport and Providence, and experts like Dr. Kenneth Wong, Annenberg Chair for Education Policy at Brown University.

Another statement about American education that received widespread agreement and helped set a tone about how to move forward to improve our schools, was made by Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent James A. Williams. He said, “The world is flat, but we have the same school system that we did in 1950. We’re losing knowledge. Our children are intellectually dying.”

Education is a joint interest, not just one of the schools. Contracts must provide more teacher autonomy, as well as accountability. Budgets in schools must be student-focused and there needs to be revised hiring strategies. We also need to eliminate language that constrains scheduling, class size and the length of the school day. Also, we need to rethink the professional ladder and support for school staff.

Schools are the open gate to giving children a better life. It is urgent that mayors find ways to become more engaged and take on a leadership role. I strongly support what St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker recently said, “We’re past the time when mayors can sit back and think it’s someone else’s responsibility to take care of schools. We have to be actively involved in helping to improve the schools.”

We, as mayors, can encourage and strengthen our cities’ civic capacity – its will, commitment and resources – to address fundamental education issues; and I would ask other mayors to share their ideas and practices. This is not the end of our conversation. I look forward to keeping you posted in the months ahead.

This is just too important. We run the risk of losing another generation of young people, if we don’t get this right.