The harsh glare of state accountability systems has brought to public attention the expansive collective-bargaining agreements that local school boards negotiate with their employees. Big-city school superintendents such as New York City’s Joel Klein and Philadelphia’s Paul Vallas have decried the agreements under which they have labored. In this forum Linda Kaboolian says that collective bargaining is here to stay, but offers ways to make it more educationally productive; Howard Fuller and George Mitchell lament the impediments that collective bargaining has imposed on the learning process and call for more transparency; and Eva Moskowitz, a former New York City councilwoman, wonders if the system isn’t “too broke to fix.”

Table Talk by Linda Kaboolian
A Culture of Complaint by George Mitchell and Howard Fuller
Breakdown by Eva Moskowitz