Denver teachers vote to go on strike for first time in over two decades

Source: Think Progress

Teachers want a better compensation system.

CASEY QUINLAN
JAN 23, 2019, 10:20 AM

Only a few weeks into the new year, teachers in another major U.S. city are getting ready to take to the streets.

Denver Public School teachers voted late Tuesday to authorize a strike, after more than a year of negotiations failed to bring the union and school district together on issues of compensation. The teachers union, Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA), said 93 percent of its members approved the strike.

The earliest that teachers could strike is January 28. If teachers go on strike, it would be the first in 25 years and it would affect 71,000 students in the district.

The issues teachers are striking over are fairly unique to Denver, which uses a merit-based compensation system called “ProComp,” dating back to 2005. It gives one-time incentives for teachers beyond their case salary to work in hard-to-staff positions or teach in schools where students perform well on state tests. But the union said it wants a more traditional approach to salary structure so that pay is more likely to be under teachers’ control and based on expectations they understand.

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/denver-teachers-strike-education-salaries-f01bd9403891/