By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. – An arbitrator made the correct call when he ruled that the Douglas County (Colorado) school district must adhere to a labor contract and continue to fund half the salary of school employees released from their duties to do union work.

But that doesn’t mean “union release time” is a good practice.

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The arbitrator ruled Monday that the school district is not entitled to more than $100,000 it’s attempting to collect from the teachers union to compensate for the salaries of school employees who worked for the union in 2011-12, EdNewsColorado.org reports.

The dispute surfaced after school and union officials discussed the possibility of the union paying the full salaries of school employees who staff the union’s office. The union president proposed paying the full cost if the union had sole supervision of the school employees, but that idea was never put in writing.

The district is now attempting to collect reimbursement for the full salaries of those employees during the 2011-12 school year, even though the union’s collective bargaining agreement stipulates that the parties would share the cost. That contract provision was never altered, so it must be legally honored.

“The idea that (union) President (Brenda) Smith’s spontaneous remark that she would be happy to pay 100 percent as constituting a legitimate offer … is, in my judgment, an unreasonable position to take,” the arbitrator wrote in his opinion, according to the news site. “This is particularly true when the parties have a detailed and systematic system in place that controls how the collective bargaining agreements can be amended or modified.”

We agree, but we also believe the case brings up a bigger issue. Only a small percentage of taxpayers around the nation are aware that their dollars are often used to subsidize the salaries of public employees who are freed from their duties to work for their union.

In other words, they are paying teachers who never teach. That sort of arrangement is not only wrong, it’s an unnecessary expense that most school districts can’t afford.

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Taxpayers shouldn’t tolerate this type of waste. They would be wise to learn about this issue, investigate union release time in their local school districts, and demand that school officials do away with the practice if it exists.

Then school officials everywhere should take a hard line with their local teachers unions to remove “release time” language from contracts as soon as possible.

Tax dollars would be saved for better purposes, and school boards wouldn’t be forced to honor pricey contract provisions that never should have been approved in the first place.