Collective Bargaining: “NOT a Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone”

Estimated Read Time: 3 minutes

Speaking to the conservative Republican group, the Lincoln Club, on March 23, 2022, DCSD School Board President Mike Peterson called it a self-licking ice cream cone (see our earlier blog post, “The Misinformation Spread”). 

When you hear Peterson conjuring up a bizarre image, you can bet he aims to spread fear, divisiveness and derision (a gaslighter’s delight!). A self-licking ice cream cone is a term for a self-perpetuating system that has no purpose other than to sustain itself.In Peterson's words, "You're gonna see the collective bargaining come in, that self-licking ice cream cone.” Wait a minute – what is a CBA? Sounds like yet another cannabis derivative! 

CBA stands for a collective bargaining agreement. A collective bargaining agreement is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company that regulates the terms and conditions of employees at work. Douglas County Federation, the union representing the teachers in Douglas County, had a collective bargaining agreement that was negotiated regularly up until 2012 (see blog post, Teachers United). When the BOE broke that agreement, DCSD teachers effectively lost any say in determining their salaries and working conditions. This placed our public school teachers on par with private and charter school teachers. What does this mean?

The charter schools in Douglas County, which now number more than 30, were never bound by the CBA negotiated between the School Board and the Douglas County Federation. Each charter school had its own agreement, or “charter,” that determined, among other things, teacher salary and working conditions. According to Charter Schools in Perspective, a project initiated to improve the conversation about charter schools in the US, traditional public school teachers' average salary was $53,400, whereas charter school teachers' average salary was $44,500 (A recent report from Business.org found teachers in Colorado ranks #49 in the nation for teacher pay). The National Center for Education Statistics shows that private school teachers are at the same disadvantage as charter school teachers: they earn an average of $10,000 – $15,000 less than comparable public school positions. (Remember when the last Reformer school board in Douglas County fought for school vouchers allowing parents to divert our tax dollars to private schools)?

So in denying teachers this supposed “self-licking ice cream cone” of a collective agreement, what is the ultimate goal? The hidden agenda and ultimate goal is to destroy public education through subjugation, humiliation and denial of the rights of our hard-working teachers. Our “Kids First” School Board members have put teachers last, and our kids and community are soon to follow unless we become proactively involved!