LITTLE ROCK — It’s not enough to do right, it needs to be done right. That about sums up the non-decision Monday by a circuit judge in Pulaski County. His Honor Tim Fox was called on to decide the latest legal round between the teachers’ union and the Pulaski County school board that’s trying to free the district from the union’s contract, and its toils. The judge’s call? He’s going to think about it for a while before handing it down.
Judge Fox had already ruled (April 8th) that the school board has the authority to disqualify the union as the bargaining agent for the district’s teachers. State law says so. But the law also says some other things. For example, the school district has to set up a committee to represent the teachers in the union’s place-and establish some personnel policies for that committee to oversee. Has it? It’s started the process, but has it done enough tomeet the law? That’s the question the judge has to decide as the union tries to hold on to its favored position and perks thereof in the Pulaski County Special School District, which keeps facing special challenges.
If all this delay means is that it may take a while longer for the school board to establish a more sensible system than giving the union a death grip on every change the board tries to make, so be it. It’s better that the job be done right than it be done quickly.
It’s a rule any good carpenter knows: Measure twice, cut once. And it applies to cutting off this union’s power, too. If ’twere done, best it be done right. Because you know that, whatever the circuit judge rules, this whole ball of wrangle is likely to end up before the state’s Supreme Court. Trying to free a school district to educate its students ain’t easy. It’s just worth doing. And doing right.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 06/30/2010