The reason: the possiblity of teacher strikes.
Negotiations on new contracts are under way in the Washington, Canon-McMillan, McGuffey, Fort Cherry, Charleroi Area, Southeastern Greene and West Greene districts. Teachers at Intermediate Unit 1 and Greene County Career and Technology Center also are looking for new deals.
Details of the issues at hand in each district are not being made public, but it's a safe bet that the teachers unions are looking for higher pay and, at the minimum, the same level of benefits they are now receiving. On the other hand, districts, in an effort to control costs and avoid tax increases, are no doubt trying to minimize the raises and get the teachers to pick up more of the burden for their health insurance.
Caught in the middle, as always, are the children of our area.
In a recent story in this newspaper, Butch Santicola of the Pennsylvania State Education Association said the poor economy hasn't affected contract negotiations. In his opinion, perhaps, but try telling that to the people who are paying school taxes.
At last count, the unemployment rate in the two-county area was running about 8 percent, with indications that the employment situation could get worse before it gets better. Even if it doesn't, one of every dozen of your neighbors is out of work right now, and many of those who aren't are seeing salary freezes, pay cuts and reductions in benefits. And, yes, that includes newspaper people.
It's pretty clear how people who are scratching and scraping to pay their bills and avoid foreclosure on their homes might react to seeing a teachers union asking for 4 percent annual pay increases for its members, along with no sacrifices in the area of health benefits. The unions should be prepared for significant public outrage if they make such demands and, not having them met, decide to walk off their jobs.
Gone are the days when teachers received poor benefits and subsistence wages. Veteran teachers with master's degrees in our area receive salaries ranging from $50,000 to more than $80,000. And the 10- or 11-week summer vacation isn't such a bad perk, either.
Then there is the issue of teacher strikes, themselves.
Pennsylvania has no peers when it comes to the number of teachers toting picket signs each year. The Allegheny Institute reports that almost 60 percent of teacher strikes nationwide since 2000 have occurred in our state. In fact, Pennsylvania's figure (94) more than triples the number of walkouts in the next most strike-ridden state.
Pennsylvania is among the minority of states that allow teachers to strike, and perhaps the time has come to revisit the issue of barring teacher walkouts. It might require a change to the state constitution, and the growth of stiffer backbones by some of our elected officials who seem to have an aversion to crossing teachers unions, but like police officers and firefighters, teachers are public servants, and they cause disruption and harm to our children, and the parents of those children, when they abandon their responsibilities in order to walk picket lines.
Allegheny Institute argues that, absent a complete ban on strikes, there are steps that could be taken that would make walkouts unpalatable for unionized teachers. First, the institute suggests a penalty of two days' pay and benefits for every day teachers walk off their jobs. Second, the group suggests mandating a school year that provides 180 days of instruction by May 31, a move that would prevent teacher walkouts from dragging the school year past it's usual end.
No one denies that teachers have difficult and demanding jobs, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for the service they provide in our society. But at some point, those same teachers must recognize the economic realities in the communities where they work.