No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks as they walk the picket line …
Well, if a trio of Republican lawmakers including state Rep. Bryan Cutler of Peach Bottom have their way, teacher unions would no longer be permitted to strike during tough contract negotiations with school boards.
From a news release:
House Bill 1369 contains several clearly defined and enforceable financial penalties, including $5,000 individual fine, per incident for inciting a strike; striking teachers losing two days of pay, per day of an illegal strike; and the striking teachers union forfeiting its dues check-off privilege for one year.
“It is time for Pennsylvania to adopt a ban on teacher strikes because they hurt our students by interrupting the education process,” said Cutler. “They hurt our parents by forcing them to take time off work or pay for someone to watch their children during these unexpected disruptions in the school year. Finally, they hurt our taxpayers by driving up the cost of education.”
As you can imagine, teacher unions are like “Nuh uh!” From Eleanor Chute’s article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said, “Teachers don’t like strikes any more than the rest of the public. They feel they’re sometimes necessary, however.”
Since 1992, he said, no student has lost a single day of instruction due to a teacher strike, noting the days are made up as required by state law. He also said that a PSEA study showed that strikes did not have an effect on scores of state tests within a district from one year to the next and between districts.
The chances of this passing are somewhere between one and negative one. Anyone out there think the Democrats, which control the state House, would be willing to pass this?
Me either.
But writing about this allows me to feature state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, again. Cue hyperbole … copy and paste from the news release … now go:
“Militant teacher unions have no legitimate right to shut down a public school solely for bargaining purposes,” said Metcalfe, whose legislative district has been negatively impacted by two public school-closing teacher strikes (Seneca Valley and South Butler school districts) during the past two school years. “Ultimately, teacher strikes are really the hammer that forces property taxes through the roof because taxpayers are left footing the bill for union-driven salary increases and lengthy arbitrations. Eliminating teacher strikes is a fundamental quality of life issue that I’ve been working on for several years and will continue to do so for the benefit of our students, parents and taxpayers.”
I particularly laughed at the “militant teachers” reference. Makes our frontline educators sound like roving bands of well-organized but shadowy militias operating in the remote ravines of state forests, sportin’ camo and Rambo-like headbands. I’ve come to know a lot of teachers personally. Some were cool, some were nerds, but none of them were militant … except for a gym teacher or two, but that had nothing to do with the teachers’ union and more to do with the ego boost one gets wearing a whistle.
Frankly, if it wasn’t for a few of those public school teachers, I would have missed out on a lot of life-guiding principles. Say what you will about the right to strike, but let’s please not demean the other side. What good purpose does that serve?
