Miami School District labor negotiation strategies and outcomes

Miami-Dade County Schools Negotiations

The author would like to point out that the problem of redrawing school district boundaries to deal with demographic issues. It is fortunate that in the Miami Dade County school district situation that the situations are being resolved by negotiations. Historically, situations that have had forcible solutions such as forced busing in Boston in 1974 have resulted in social strife and violence. Needless to say, the incident was not exactly a welcome happening in the period leading up to America's bicentennial year. To quote a Hoover Institution Study: "A federal judge's experiment in social engineering has unraveled neighborhoods and frustrated black achievement ("Busing's boston massacre," 2010)." If nothing else is to be learned from the "Boston Massacre," it is far better to negotiate the situation. In addition, the author would like to point out the need for bureaucrats to think outside the box. Using Boston as an example again, one is disappointed to that problems rarely go away but simply change form. In Boston, busing is still being used, but for different reasons. This time school choice is the issue but tragically Boston School District officials are still using a hated solution ("Boston still vexed," 2009).

Is there a good model for school district negotiations? After all, most parents want the best for their children and for them to be in the "magnet" schools. The fact of the matter is that the system is not completely equal. Negotiations are necessary to create the best and most equitable situation possible. For this reason, it is necessary to learn the skills of negotiation. For this, it is necessary to bring in community leaders to the process, train everyone in the negotiations paradigm and then accept and ratify the end process. For this, the author consulted the ruminations of attorney Tom Noble who has published widely on negotiations to replace expensive litigation.

First of all, the school district and the parents of students in the district need to abandon the "take it or leave it mentality." No one is going to get all of what they want. To quote Noble's article negotiations commonly follow a four-step path: preparation, information exchange, explicit bargaining, and commitment. ... Negotiation is, in short, a kind of universal dance with four stages or steps. And it works best when both parties are experienced dancers."

So, beginning with step one, there must be preparation. The ground rules must be spelled out and meetings, policy making and ratification procedures need to be drawn up. Secondly, one the ground work can be done there is the education process that must take place where information is exchanged. Thirdly, negotiations must go on. Fourthly, commitment must be secured from the negotiation parties. This will spell out in the establishment of a monitoring and facilitation regime that will ensure that the policies are carried out. Attorney Noble then spells out these steps in greater detail, one that is far beyond the scope of this short policy paper (Noble, 2010).

Before going into the process however it is necessary to briefly consider ethics and culture. The primary clientele of the Miami Dade School District is a polyglot mixture of various Hispanic groups (Cuban, Puerto Rican etc.), Haitian, African-American and many others. The results of the 2000 census show that the population indicated that 57% were Hispanic, non-Hispanic Whites were 24%. 51% of the students are foreign born ("Demographic profile miami-dade," 2003, iii).