MADISON, Wis. – A persistent achievement gap between white and minority students in the Madison, Wisconsin school district has some calling for increased flexibility in the teacher hiring process.

And the local teachers union would be wise to cooperate with efforts to address the issue.

School board member Ed Hughes wants to change the Madison teachers union contract to allow consideration of more teaching candidates from outside the school district, which would create a much bigger hiring pool when filling teaching vacancies.

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Under the current union contract, teachers already working in the district are first given the opportunity to transfer into open positions before external candidates are considered, according to a recent Madison.com editorial.

“I’m not proposing a specific solution, but we need to address these issues in a collaborative way so we’re not handcuffing ourselves from bringing in the best teachers,” Hughes recently told The Capital Times.

Having a school board member raise questions about provisions in the teachers union contract is very rare in Madison. The city and school district are traditionally very liberal and pro-union.

The Madison school district is “virtually the only district in the state” that continues to negotiate a full collective bargaining agreement with its local teachers union, following the 2011 enactment of Act 10, a state law which greatly curbs teacher union collective bargaining privileges, according to Madison.com.

“The Madison School Board has been very good to its teachers,” Madison.com opined. “The district continues to deliver regular raises each year. It hasn’t been laying off educators. It hasn’t, so far, required its teachers to pay part of their health insurance premiums – something most public workers across Wisconsin have been doing.”

But now a board member is actually questioning a union tradition because it’s not in the best interests of students. How refreshing.

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Hughes said he believes that filling teaching vacancies from within the district discourages quality outside candidates from applying. He also says it hampers efforts to hire more minority teachers, which he believes the district could use more of to address its achievement gap, Madison.com reports.

The news site clearly agrees, and it’s suggesting that district officials open up the hiring process to anyone who wants to apply.

“Let the principals at Madison schools hire who they want to hire, and allow all potential applicants into the same pool for consideration,” the Madison.com op-ed argues. “That will bring in more of the best teachers from other districts to Madison. It also will help diversify the teaching ranks, which will provide struggling students with more role models while expanding the school culture.

“With such a high and stubborn achievement gap along racial and ethnic lines, Madison schools need all the flexibility in hiring they can get.”

Under Act 10, the school board would have the legal power to change the contract provision without union approval, but the board clearly prefers to play nice with a more “collaborative” approach.

If the Madison teachers union knows what’s good for it, union officials will agree to change the hiring rules to maintain its cushy relationship with school leaders.

If they stubbornly refuse – like most do when proposed changes don’t directly benefit the union or its members – it will only encourage school leaders to take matters into their own hands, like they should have the moment Act 10 took effect.