Educators in Illinois don't strike very often. The head of the Illinois Federation of Teachers wrote in November 2010 that there have been an average of four teacher strikes a year, out of 869 school districts, over the previous five years.

But the ability to strike after a contract impasse has become one of the pivot points in talks about an education bill this session in Springfield. The question is whether teachers' right to strike will be restricted as envisioned by the Performance Counts bill, a draft of which (PDF) circulated online earlier this year. Here's how State Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Broadview), who is leading talks, described the negotiations between various stakeholders to Illinois Statehouse News:

The battle lines on this issue have Illinois teacher unions, who have proposed their own series of school reforms (PDF), facing off against the Oregon-based Stand For Children (SFC) group. The latter group has aligned with various chambers of commerce and other business groups to advocate for the Performance Counts bill.

Teachers say the legislation is a "Wisconsin-style" attack on their collective bargaining rights that they will oppose. "Collective bargaining has been shown to dramatically reduce the number of school strikes and to allow educators to have a voice in issues that benefit students, from lower class sizes to effective curriculum," the Illinois Federation of Teachers President Daniel Montgomery said in a statement. "The IFT will not stand by and allow the rights of our hard working members to be diminished nor their voices to be silenced." Stand For Children, meanwhile, is trying to distance itself (PDF) from what it describes on a website as "politically motivated legislation" in the Badger State. SFC raised a stunning $3.4 million for its Illinois political action committee in 2010 and doled out $610,000 of that haul to various members of the General Assembly (the group has raised more funds in 2011 as well).

The Springfield education talks have important implications for Chicago. Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel said during his campaign that he supported the draft version of Performance Counts, a major point of contention between he and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). CTU's current contract with Chicago Public Schools expires next summer, raising the possibility, at least, of a strike ahead of the 2012-2013 school year.

Currently, the Educational Labor Relations Act allows school district employees to engage in a strike under five conditions. The employees must be represented by a bargaining agent; mediation about a contract dispute failed; 10 days has passed after a union has notified the district and state authorities they plan to strike; the collective bargaining agreement has expired; and the district and union have not submitted unresolved issues to arbitration.

The Performance Counts draft would only allow educators to go on strike after a contract dispute went through a review process that could take months and only if the school board didn't ratify a recommended settlement put together by a separate panel.

Here's what the draft copy of Performance Counts put on the table:

If contract talks between a teachers union and school district stalled out, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board would order the dispute sent to a three-member fact-finding panel, which would have a 90-day period to resolve the situation; the union, school district, and board would each appoint one member to the panel.

If no settlement could be found, the panel would privately make recommendations to both sides. These terms would become the new contract unless one side rejected them, spelling out why within 10 days. The rejection would cause the panel's recommendation to be released to the public.
 
Once the panel's contract proposal was public, it would be incorporated into the collective bargaining agreement, unless either the district or union rejects the deal within five days; that rejection would then be made public. The union and the school district would then get 10 days to make final offers on the disputed issues. After that period, the school board could then ratify the panel's recommendations or vote to approve the final offers made in the 10-day period as the new collective bargaining contract; the vote would require two-third of the board to pass.
 
Finally, if, after 40 days, the board has not adopted any of the recommendations, the union would be allowed to strike.

Should teachers strike outside of this process, the Performance Counts legislation would empower school districts to take the case to court, and allow the court to render the teachers union "ineligible" to represent teachers for a two-year period, prohibit dues deduction, void bargaining agreements, and impose fines on union officers or representatives.

Stand For Children's chief, Jonah Edelman, has argued these restrictions are necessary because a strike by CTU could be used to block efforts to increase the length of CPS's school day, an Emanuel administration priority. Recent statements from CTU President Karen Lewis, however, suggest this may be a non-issue -- or at least one that can be bargained over the way employers and organized employees do when a contract is up. Lewis told the Tribune editorial board that "she is 'very open' to a longer day and year 'if we're talking about bringing a rich curriculum back to the public schools. We want art, music, PE, history, science, everything.'"

How school districts would pay for everything, however, seems to be getting lost here. No one in the General Assembly is talking about how districts -- many of which face deficits and are cutting staff and reducing programs -- would presumably pay for longer days and a longer school year. (Former Chicago mayoral candidate Gery Chico was the last public figure we can recall who at least acknowledged that if you asked teachers to work longer hours, you'd presumably have to pay them more.) A lot of the discussions in Springfield about school funding are going the other way, in fact, with House members and the Senate GOP calling for education cuts in the state's next budget.

Lightford said the education bill will emerge in SB 7. Stay tuned.