Empirical evidence on the effects of compensation reform is somewhat scarce. Most U.S. public school teachers are paid according to rigid schedules that determine pay based solely on seniority and academic credentials. In unionized school districts, these schedules are set by collective bargaining agreements. In 2011 when the Wisconsin state…

The U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in "Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees" (AFSCME) (referred to as "Janus" hereafter) prohibited state and local government worker unions from negotiating collective bargaining agreements with fair share fee arrangements. In this report, the authors…

Twenty-five Wisconsin school districts were located that had undertaken compensation reforms after state law drastically curtailed collective bargaining for teachers. Document reviews and interviews determined (a) the impetuses for pursuing compensation reform, (b) change process characteristics, and (c) the specific compensation reforms.…

Teachers are one of the most important inputs in the production of student achievement, and their impact persists throughout adulthood. Attracting and retaining high-quality teachers to the profession is thus a policy issue of highest importance. More attractive compensation packages are often proposed as a possible tool to achieve this goal. In…

This paper studies teacher attrition in Wisconsin following Act 10, a policy change which severely weakened teachers' unions and capped wage growth for teachers. I document a sharp increase in turnover after the Act was passed, driven almost entirely by the exit of older teachers, who faced strong incentives to retire before the end of…

Act 10, the 2011 legislative ruling in Wisconsin that reduced public-sector unions' collective bargaining power, provides a descriptive case study to examine what happens to teachers when collective bargaining disappears. Analysis of interviews with social studies teachers (n = 26) from a stratified random sample of 13 districts shows that the…

In the era of No Child Left Behind, principals are increasingly held accountable for student performance. But are teacher labor agreements giving them enough flexibility to manage effectively? This study answers this question and others. It examines how much flexibility school leaders enjoy on key dimensions of management in America's fifty…

Examination of arbitration decisions in Wisconsin teacher wage disputes, 1977-86, found that wage increases agreed to earlier by comparable school districts had a substantial impact on the arbitrators' decisions. (SK)

Replies to James G. Ward's objections to the author's recent "Journal of Education Finance" article, which concluded that comprehensive collective bargaining had no significant effect on teachers' salaries or fringe benefits in Wisconsin school districts during 1979-80. Calls for alternative strategies to improve teachers' economic…

Examines salary data for a sample of 50 small and medium-sized school districts in Wisconsin to determine how collective bargaining affects teacher salaries compared to other factors. Concludes that bargaining has had a significant negative effect on teacher salaries in these districts. (Author/JG)

This study investigated the relationship between collective negotiations and teacher salaries in Wisconsin public school districts. Data were collected from a random sample of 324 Wisconsin school districts with professional staffs ranging from 30 to 500 members. A six-indicator index was developed to measure the comprehensiveness of collective…

A 1972-73 study found a negative correlation between collective bargaining and teacher salary levels in Wisconsin. Replication of the study in 1979-80 indicated that collective negotiations had no significant effect on salaries or on fringe benefits and that socioeconomic factors were of highest significance. (PGD)

The literature on collective bargaining in public education typically argues whether such bargaining is good public policy or bad, sound or unsound, and so forth. No studies to date have measured the actual impact of differing kinds of collective bargaining legislation on local school boards' decisionmaking powers. This study examined whether two…

As faculty and other public sector unions become more sophisticated in collective bargaining, they tend to lay a greater variety of demands on the table. This, in turn, forces the employer to ask, Do I really have to bargain about these subjects? As more employers refuse to bargain, more unions charge them with failing to bargain in good faith,…

Collective bargaining agreements between the boards of trustees and faculty associations of 13 selected community college districts in Wisconsin are presented, representing contracts in effect in 1987. Contracts for the following colleges and districts are presented: Blackhawk Technical Institute; Fox Valley Technical Institute; Gateway Technical…