With teachers across the state taking a stand for better education funding, a couple of Colorado legislators have introduced a bill that would prohibit teacher strikes and impose some pretty hefty consequences.
Instead of listening to Colorado's educators and putting their heads together to form a solution for abysmally low education funding, a couple of state legislators are spending their time coming up with penalties for teachers if they decide to strike.
Senate Bill 18-264, which was introduced on Friday, April 20, would make it illegal for Colorado public school teachers to strike against their employers. It would also prohibit those employers from agreeing to or condoning a strike and then continuing to pay teachers while they are participating in a strike.
In the unlikely event that the bill would become law, teachers who participate in a strike could be served with an injunction from the district court. If at that point they continued to strike, they would be immediately terminated, tried for contempt of court, and would potentially face a possible fine and/or a jail sentence of up to six months (if convicted).
Sponsored by Republican lawmakers Sen. Bob Gardner and Rep. Paul Lundeen, the bill has not been a particularly popular one, and it's not believed that the measure can garner enough support to pass.
“I started thinking about the bill when I saw the news about teacher strikes in West Virginia,” Sen. Gardner, of Colorado Springs, told the Denver Post. “… It’s a wise thing to do, in some shape or form, in the state of Colorado because we have one district that’s already voted to strike. We have others discussing a strike. Strikes are not good for children.”Teachers in Pueblo have voted to go on strike as of May 4, if a resolution is not reached by Colorado's education and labor agency.
But critics say that SB 18-264's language is too harsh -- that it interferes with teachers' right to free speech, per the First Amendment, and that the consequences for violation of the potential law are too extreme.
"I think it’s very dangerous for teachers across the country," Suzanne Ethredge, the Pueblo Education Association president, told KOAA News 5. "They would no longer be able to assert their right to strike, their right to speak out if conditions warrant it.”Gardner defends the bill, insisting that the language in no way prohibits teachers' rights to speak or assemble. He is, however, willing to talk about "softening" the penalties for individual teachers in violation. “It’s probably most important [that] the union that sponsors that strike be penalized,” he told the Denver Post. “I’m open to some changes in the penalty.” He also noted that it is already against the law for Colorado's state employees to strike.
