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Saturday, March 26, 2022

Is it big local news? Or local big news? Whichever, Minneapolis teachers went on strike and got class size caps. No other thing is as major as that. One cannot teach too many well. That is a bottom line where the high priced prep schools have the greatest advantage.

 Strib reports, and since it is local news it is not carrying somebody's nationwide feed:

What you need to know about the tentative agreements with Minneapolis teachers, support professionals --
The union began to schedule information sessions and voting over the weekend.

By Mara Klecker Star Tribune March 25, 2022

What is in the tentative agreements?

The full agreements have not been made public yet.

In a news release early Friday, the union described them as "historic agreements." It said "major gains were made on pay for education support professionals, protections for educators of color, class size caps and mental health supports."

Union leaders shared some of the details on Friday afternoon.

For education support professionals, the union said, the tentative agreement includes wage increases that boost the starting hourly wage from $19.83 to $23.91.

The union leaders said the contract includes "a nation-leading model that exempts teachers of color from seniority-based layoff and excessing" as well as class-size caps.

A memorandum of agreement would also add mental health supports in elementary schools and ensure a social worker in each school building, union leaders said.

What's next?

The union said in a news release that its members will vote on the contracts this weekend. Late Friday, the union announced times and locations for voting and information sessions for Saturday at Justice Page (11 a.m.), Davis Center (1 p.m.), Roosevelt High (3 p.m.) and Edison High (5 p.m.) Voting also will take place at the MFT Office, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to -4 p.m. Sunday

[bolding added] A hope is the class size caps are genuine, and not set at "no class larger than forty," or some such bullshit number. 

The reported term "teachers of color" is vague. Hispanic teachers left hanging? Hmong and other discernible groups, not really of color, but "minority."

Presuming actual contract language is better than press release summation, there really might be a landmark change. With some of our nation's white folk marching at night with tiki torches and vulgar phrases, suggesting that white folk now have been made a "minority" in "their" nation, wording should matter if individual cases end up arbitrated (presuming arbitration clauses are integral to management desires in this contract as in any other labor agreement).

Manage wisely class sizes so that teachers can teach. New idea? Hardly. Every teachers' contract negotiation/strike makes the point. Too often more pay sways the day, and class size caps fall by the wayside. This time class size as an issue was not bought out easily and crassly. That is a landmark. Wisdom prevailed.