October 15, 1969

Strikes Degrade Teacher Image

Here it is, six weeks or so into the new school year, and thousands of children throughout the country still are idle because of teacher strikes.

In the first week of September more than 10,000 elementary and secondary school teachers in 11 states were on the picket line and 320,000 pupils kept out of class.

Last year, 70,000 teachers across the nation struck their school systems and sent home 1.2 million children.

The number of strikes is greater this year and involves more areas.

Gradually, the disputes are being settled, but a few drag on.

The kids love it, and the parents worry.

We want the best education possible for our children, but the inflationary pinch makes us reluctant to pay higher teacher salaries.

The organization of teachers into unions is a fairly young labor movement.  Many educators still resist.  The prospects are for more unrest as bargaining agents extend their activities.

Under the circumstances it would be prudent for school boards to make every effort to get their contracts in before the end of the current school year, rather than negotiate them during the traditional summer months.

It would be to the best interest of both teachers and administrators to get this chore over with early.  Whether or not they agree, however, it is time to find a better way of coming to terms.  The public soon wearies of the imposition on their children.

Personally, I don't object to teachers making the best deal they can for wages and working conditions.  I do believe, though, it is hitting below the belt to deliberately wait until the start of school to get down to the nitty-gritty of bargaining.  This puts maximum pressure on the taxpayers.  At the same time it immeasurably degrades respect for teachers.

There must be - there has to be - a satisfactory alternative.

Once upon a time, teachers, postal workers, police, firemen and other public employees wouldn't dream of striking.  In return for guaranteed employment - via tenure and civil service - they accepted lower wages than other workers in competitive fields.

Then along came social security, unemployment compensation, supplemental earning benefits, mass bargaining power, anti-recession politics, and guaranteed annual wages.  Much of the risk in earning a living has been eliminated.

Workers in formerly competitive businesses had the same security as public employees and twice the money.  Teachers, police et al today demand the same pay for the same risks - or lack of risk.  It is logical and fair, but its dirty pool to manipulate our kids for personal gain.

Is there a connection between the declining prestige of teachers and their increase in salary?  I honestly don't know, but the simultaneous development of both conditions is interesting.

School riots, vandalism and teacher abuse has risen sharply in recent years.  The mildest corporal discipline by a teacher brings a torrent of criticism from parents.  The term "blackboard jungle" is one of real terror to many big city schools.

In Akron, Cleveland, Youngstown, and New York - to mention just a few cities - teachers demand higher salaries for going into known problem schools.  And I don't blame them.

As salaries of educators rise - for whatever reason - the public gets correspondingly recalcitrant.  The great sympathy for underpaid teachers so prevalent after World War II long ago evaporated.

Most people believe that teachers salaries now compare favorably with their own - even allowing for the summer hiatus which affords an opportunity to teachers for a short term job, training for higher-paying classifications, or an extended vacation.

Undoubtedly I will receive several letters from irate teachers that their wages are woefully inadequate.  Send them in, and we will gladly publish them.  The fact remains, however, that the majority of taxpayers believe teachers' pay is adequate.  They emphasize this belief repeatedly by turning down operating levies.

Every strike a teacher's group "wins" is also a defeat of public support.  This is the modern trend, and I suppose it has to be.

But the resentful electorate - that holds the purse strings - will retaliate in subtle ways at first and in emphatic ways finally.

The most likely development is a demand for 12-months of school for 12-months of wages.

A possibility is a quota for masters and doctors classifications.

A probability is an insistence by taxpayers on a merit system of promotion.  Teachers can't have the best of both worlds.

Strikes are powerful bargaining tools, but they are a mixed blessing in the long run.

Author: Lindsey Williams