The Scope of Bargaining and Bargaining Outcomes in the Public Schools

Abstract

This study examines state-to-state variations in the legality of bargaining over class size in public schools, to determine, first, whether these variations in the legal scope of bargaining bear any relationship to actual class sizes and, second, whether these variations are indirectly associated with teachers' salaries. Using a model of the quality of education to analyze data from the 1977 Census of Governments on 4,851 independent school districts, the author concludes that restrictions on class-size bargaining are associated with both larger student-teacher ratios and higher teachers' salaries. He also finds that the availability of voluntary arbitration and the limited right to strike are related to lower student-teacher ratios.