The Michigan Legislature passed significant, bipartisan education reforms during its 2009-2010 session.[1] These policies were inspired by President Obama’s Race to the Top program, which awarded federal grants to states on a competitive basis. A key goal of the program was to encourage states to improve public schools by reforming policies related to how they train, evaluate, assign and pay teachers.[2]
Michigan applied three times for the competitive funding but failed on each attempt.[3] A strike against its application score was interference from the state’s largest teachers unions, the Michigan Education Association and American Federation of Teachers-Michigan. They refused to endorse the proposed reforms, which would have boosted the state’s chances.[4] Teachers unions also made known their plans to prevent districts from enacting the reforms by refusing to agree to them in their union contracts.[5]
In response, the Michigan Legislature enacted additional school reforms in 2011 meant to prevent unions from blocking the types of policies the Obama administration encouraged states to adopt. These reforms, among other things, gave school administrators more control over how they recruit, evaluate, assign and reward their teachers. The new legislation prohibited school districts from negotiating with teachers unions over subjects of bargaining related to these personnel issues.[6]
But in 2023, the Michigan Legislature reversed itself and repealed these changes.[7] Teachers unions will again be empowered to determine how school districts evaluate, place and reward teachers. They will likely push schools to readopt the policies that the Obama administration identified as problematic and encouraged states to reform.
Michigan is now at an inflection point. School officials will be asked to bargain over terms and conditions of employment previously left off the table. Some officials may not know that their existing collective bargaining agreements contain the formerly illegal terms that might automatically go back into effect. Other contracts have carved out the subjects of bargaining that were made illegal in 2011 but require those terms to be renegotiated immediately. No matter the state of their current contract, school officials should be prepared to address contract terms which they have not considered for more than a decade.