Catherwood LibraryILR School

The California State Assembly Appropriations Committee approved a heavily amended version of a bill that would have required California public school districts to negotiate with teachers? union over textbook, curriculum and academic improvement program decisions (see WIT for Feb. 22, 2002). As amended, the bill keeps such decisions outside the scope of normal contract bargaining by establishing an alternative negotiations process involving academic partnerships between school boards and teachers? unions. While the California Teachers Association has praised the amendment as a reasonable compromise, opponents insist that the academic partnerships called for in the amended bill are just collective bargaining with a new name.