‘Don’t negotiate in public’

Public education gobbles up vast sums of public money, so any negotiations on how those tax dollars are spent must take place in public. The leaders of Gov. Jim Gibbons' Blue Ribbon Education Reform Task Force wisely acknowledged as much Wednesday when, after originally deciding to meet in secret, they agreed to abide by Nevada's open meeting law and share their important discussions with taxpayers.

We applaud their change of heart and embrace of transparency. Now Nevada's teacher unions -- and the lawmakers who do their bidding -- must follow suit.

The Clark County School District has to come up with $123 million in budget cuts for the next school year, and without significant reductions in compensation, administrators will be forced to lay off hundreds of teachers. Students could wind up spending fewer days in class. Teachers at nearly every school could be transferred through seniority-based "bumping" as a result of layoffs. How the cuts are realized is of great interest to the public.

Three of the school district's four bargaining groups -- administrators, support employees and police -- have publicly declared their support for unpaid furloughs. But the teachers union is belligerently tight-lipped. Teachers "don't negotiate in public," declared Clark County Education Association President Ruben Murillo. And during a March 26 School Board workshop on the budget, Superintendent Walt Rulffes cut off discussion on teacher concessions, saying negotiations were too sensitive to discuss in public.

In fact, collective bargaining is too important and sensitive to discuss in private. It's an absolute outrage that one group of public employees (administrators) gets to meet in secret with another group of public employees (rank and file) to decide how to spend your money. Citizens should be able to witness the collective bargaining process in person and thereby hold elected officials directly accountable for the outcomes.

State law allows government union contracts to be negotiated in the shadows. The Legislature needs to change that by making all bargaining subject to the open meeting law.

Teachers can't expect the public's support by keeping the public out of its own business.