Teacher Strike Record Looms?

By Leo Knepper

The school year is less than a month old, but there are already two districts where teachers are on strike. There also are at least two more districts were teachers have indicated they’d walk out by mid-October. Teachers from Shamokin and Line Mountain Areas are out of the classroom. In both cases, the teachers’ unions are demanding more.Teacher Strike Record Looms? The new school year is less than a month old, but there are already two districts where teachers are on strike. Teacher Strike Record Looms? Teacher Strike Record Looms? Teacher Strike Record Looms?

The PSEA negotiator at both school districts is Mark McDade, who makes over $100,000 per year. The situation was neatly summed up in a letter from the Line Mountain School Board:

“It is apparent, by the Association’s last proposal, that the Association has no desire to settle these negotiations . . . Based on McDade’s leadership of 5 other local Teachers’ Unions toward strikes, regardless of how much they are being offered, it is obvious they just want more!”

In Shamokin Area, the School Board offered teachers $9,000 in salary increases over the next three three school years. The Line Mountain School Board was even more generous. Some teachers there would have seen their salaries increase by over $17,000 by 2020. Higher salaries also mean higher pensions. A multi-billion dollar funding shortfall in the pension system means taxpayers all over the state will be picking up those costs.

Pennsylvania is one of only 13 states where teachers may hold students’ education hostage to extract a higher salary and better benefits than the taxpayers who are covering the tab. We also lead the nation in teachers’ strikes. It would appear we are on track to keep that title.

Mr. Knepper is executive director of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.

Teacher Strike Record Looms?

Teacher Sues PSEA

Teacher Sues PSEALinda Misja is suing the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) one of the most powerful and cynical political organizations in the state.

Ms. Misja is a highly regarded French teacher at Bellefonte Area High School who has opted out of the school’s bargaining unit but is still required by state law to pay a “fair share” fee which is automatically deducted from her paycheck. The union is only allowed to use this money for collective bargaining and representational activities of the union. They are not allowed to use fair share fees for  non-union matters.

Ms. Misja, however, points out that the PSEA has taken stands on matters unrelated to collective bargaining and representation — especially with regard to its support for unrestricted abortion. SShe doesn’t want to contribute anything to it because of that.

State law allows for religious objectors to donate money equivalent to the fair share fee to a non-religious charity.

Ms. Misja tried that. She sought to use her fee — about $2,000 — to help fund  a charity that cares for teenage mothers in a pro-life environment. No can do, says the union. That would be “too religious.” She could only give to a group that provides the option for abortion.

So Ms. Misja offered to give the money to a non-profit group that teaches gun safety, which certainly put the PSEA on the spot. Oppose it, and it reveals to the world that they are naked hypocrites and that its agenda has nothing to do with fairness but everything to do with advancing leftism.

They opposed it. They said it was too political as the group had a connection to the National Rifle Association.

So Ms. Misja is taking them to court and we hope and pray that she wins big.

And we hope and pray that people wake up an realize how wrong automatic deductions of all workers dues are as they are invariable used to increase the wealth of leaders and support political agendas not in the workers’ best interest.

Teacher sues PSEA hat tip Matt Brouillette of Commonwealth Foundation.

Teacher Sues PSEA

 

Factory Tours Mean Richer Teachers

A bill designed to make it easier for public school teachers to get more money has moved through State House committee and is now before the full body. Factory Tours Mean Richer Teachers -- House Bill 1816 would allow teachers, guidance counselors and other school administrators to receive  education credits if they visit certain manufacturing facilities for in-person tours and orientation programs, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).  Education credits allow teachers to advance a step in the pay scale so it looks like they may soon be able to tour Yeungling Brewery and get a permanent raise.

House Bill 1816 would allow teachers, guidance counselors and other school administrators to receive  education credits if they visit certain manufacturing facilities for in-person tours and orientation programs, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).  Education credits allow teachers to advance a step in the pay scale so it looks like they may soon be able to tour Yeungling Brewery and get a permanent raise.

The only bright side would be the taxpayer would not have pay the teacher’s college tuition bill which would be the usual route to this raise.

Factory Tours Mean Richer Teachers

Outlaw Teacher Strikes

Outlaw Teacher Strikes — Today’s Delaware County Daily Times had a tough editorial calling for the abolition of teacher strikes.

The Times points out that teachers in Moon Area School District across the state in Allegheny County went on strike after being offered a 2.88 percent raise. The Times also notes that teachers in the Bethel Park School District, also in Allegheny County are striking. The Bethel Park teachers  get salaries of between $45,700 and $92,548. They are offended, however, by the district’s request that they pay 2 percent of their individual health plans and 4 percent of their family ones. They now pay 0.5 percent and  0.9 percent respectively.

Has it started to dawn on anyone that teachers union really isn’t “for the children”?

And to the Times I say welcome to the club.

In 1990, I won an award for the editorial “Scrap Act 195”.  This was the 1970 law that allowed teachers to strike. The law was scrapped in 1992 and replaced with Act 88 which put some limits on teacher strikes. Ultimately it was nowhere near enough. The appropriate thing to do is to give school districts the power to not rehire teachers when their contracts end. It would require ending the tenure protection as well, but unless you a teacher or married to one, does that  really bother you?

These reforms are not just about money. Considering the cruelty of requiring a widow surviving on Social Security to cough up an extra couple hundred dollars each year — and that’s cumulative remember — just to keep her home, money should be more than reason enough to support banning strikes and tenure.

These reforms, though, really are ultimately about the children.

The  website StopTeachersStrikes.org has excellent background on the issue.

During my own little crusade I published a list of teacher and administrator salaries of some of the districts covered by the newspapers that I edited. It was quite controversial and even got me an interview with the superb Vern Odom of WPVI-TV which is Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate

Well, the web has made things a lot easier for that sort of thing. The salary information for public school employees in Pennsylvania can be found here.


Outlaw Teacher Strikes