Pennsylvania’s SB 229 seeks to strip teachers of some of their most basic rights

One of the first priorities of the latest legislative session in the Pennsylvania General Assembly is to give public school districts throughout the state more flexibility in how it manages school personnel. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) requested lawmakers visit this topic amidst ongoing budget constraints, leaving no doubt as to their true intentions — backed into a corner by state legislators who refuse to address the issue of school funding, districts are hoping to cut costs, and who can blame them?

It’s disappointing, however, that in a state where the average yearly salary of a school superintendent hovers around $148k, and where 70% of public school districts faced increased costs associated with sending students to online charter schools, the chosen solution is to once again start at the bottom of the food chain and pick away at the few benefits teachers still have left. Instead of addressing the always-rising costs of sending students to under-regulated, low-performing charter schools, or taking steps to consolidate the state’s sprawling 500-district education system, Senate Bill 229 seeks to remove the mandate that public school districts in Pennsylvania provide their teachers with at least ten days of paid sick leave or bereavement leave each year, as well as removing the requirement that provides teachers and administrators who have worked for 10 consecutive years to a sabbatical.

In the United States, the only state to leave the issue of paid sick leave up to individual school districts is Hawaii. Among the 100+ districts that the National Council on Teacher Quality monitors for trends in school policy and procedures, the average amount of paid leave given to teachers is 13.5 days. The sponsors of the bill and PSBA’s position is that the issue of sick leave is one that teachers have to fight and negotiate for, and that they just don’t deserve it by virtue of choosing the selfless job of educating Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren.

The bill’s Republican sponsor, John Eichelberger, seems to really have something against paid sick leave, in general. In 2015, following President Obama’s call for Congress to act on federally-mandated paid sick leave for employees nationwide, the city of Philadelphia passed an ordinance that mandated, at minimum, employers provide a single hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. In the first few days of the 2017 legislative session, Eichelberger co-sponsored a bill that overruled the city council’s decision, stating in a memo accompanying the bill that this was an issue where uniformity was important, and therefore needed to be decided only at the state level. So it’s strange, then, that SB 229 gives almost the exact same power to public school districts, which operate much like local governments.

Going back to the PSBA’s official position paper, it’s not like Eichelberger doesn’t realize this (emphasis mine):

Allowing school districts to collectively bargain leave time, as opposed to mandating it would provide school districts with mandate relief and would leave the management of personal[sic] to the locally elected officials as opposed to state statute.

Eichelberger, in an interview with PennLive, said that the current statute “handcuffs” school boards, and that “what works for one county might not work in another”. So apparently there are parts of Pennsylvania in which the common cold has been eradicated?

Republican Senator John DiSanto sees it as a win-win for teachers: “It gives them the opportunity to negotiate these costs … and allow for benefits that are more meaningful in other areas,” he said. So there, teachers; you might have to come to school sick, but at least you’ll be able to negotiate for… smaller class sizes? Yeah, right.

To understand where Eichelberger is coming from, though, you only need to look to his website, where a recent blog post recounted his trip to a Catholic school and a charter school, and not-so-subtly took a jab at those nasty public schools that are always failing to provide vital services for their students (emphasis mine, again):

… they have staff social workers and a medical clinic that also services the community after school hours. I met a lot of people dedicated to helping each child succeed. As bad as the school system is in Philadelphia, there is hope for thousands of students who are either in one of the higher performing government schools or were fortunate enough to get into an alternative private or charter.

Why is paid sick leave so important? Research shows that employees with paid sick leave are more likely to seek medical care than those who don’t have it — and while you can’t conclusively say that having sick leave available to you makes you healthier, there is plenty of research that would support the idea that going to the doctor is at least better than “sucking it up” and going to work, especially when that workplace is composed entirely of children with runny noses. It’s the kind of common sense that, even though the United States remains the only developed nation without a comprehensive guarantee, plenty of states and localities across the nation are taking action.

To decide whether or not this is yet another blatant attack on the teaching profession, you really have to be able to predict whether or not school districts will take this opportunity to reduce their employee’s benefits, which is nearly impossible. Pittsburgh Public Schools, the state’s second largest district and employer of more than 5,000 school personnel, might be a good bellwether, though: first and second-year teachers receive the standard amount of 12 sick days in a year, but aren’t eligible for any personal leave until their third year of employment, in which they can then take no more than 2 days off for personal reasons.