School officials should be able to adjust the academic schedule if necessary
Indiana school children have again taken a back seat to teacher contract issues.
A judge ruled Wednesday in favor of a union-requested injunction to halt new teacher contract forms drafted by the Indiana Department of Education. The forms would have allowed school leaders to adjust the length of the school day and year as necessary to improve student instruction in Indiana schools.
We believe that school officials should have maximum flexibility to design an academic environment that best suits the needs of students in each school corporation, without unnecessary obstruction from the Indiana State Teachers Association.
The ruling, issued by Marion County Superior Court Judge Patrick McCarty, will ensure that school leaders remain bound to rigid work hours and school year schedules that could be short-changing Hoosier students.
The court’s ruling is certainly a disappointment, and we hope that local union leaders will work with school officials to do what’s best for students. However, there are many school corporations where union leaders have a history of resisting needed educational changes.
Because of Wednesday’s ruling, those same union leaders will continue to hold sway over how long students can spend in the classroom, and that could undoubtedly impact administrators’ ability to adequately prepare students to be successful after high school.
