KIPP, teachers' union go toe to toe in Baltimore
By Mary Ann Zehr/Education Week
Leaders of the KIPP charter schools are optimistic that they can reach a long-term agreement with the Baltimore Teachers Union in a nationally watched dispute over teacher pay for an extended school day, reducing the likelihood that the charter network will carry out its threat to close its two schools in that city. Jason Botel, the executive director of KIPP Baltimore, said last week that the union had indicated its willingness to negotiate a 10-year agreement that “meets our needs.” If such a deal became final, he said, the KIPP organization would stop trying to push through the Maryland legislature a bill giving it flexibility to amend an existing collective bargaining agreement as long as 80 percent of teachers in a school agreed to it. (more...)