Pennsylvania has had a long history of teacher strikes. I can remember my teachers going on strike when I was in elementary school in the early 70s. I was hazy on the details, so I started digging and found out from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers website that teachers in the Keystone state were granted the right to strike by Act 195, passed in 1970. Teacher strikes were widespread in the years immediately following the passage of Act 195, with about 30 strikes a year in PA's 500-odd school districts. Contrast that with recent years, in which only a handful of strikes have occurred.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that I'm a college professor in PA, a proud member of our faculty union (APSCUF), and a former high school teacher.
I was dismayed to come across an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about new efforts to completely ban teacher strikes in Pennsylvania.
Despite numerous attempts, the state law governing teacher strikes hasn't been changed for 17 years, but state Rep. Todd Rock, R-Franklin, isn't giving up.
Yesterday, he announced he is reintroducing the Strike-Free Education Act, a measure he sponsored in 2007.
Teacher strikes had already been significantly restricted in 1992 by legislationthat, among other things, limits the length of strikes by allowing judges to order teachers back to work in order to complete the required 180 days of school by June 30.
Yes, teacher strikes are disruptive. All strikes are; they must be if they are to be effective. At the same time, teachers are not the same as vital public safety workers like police officers and firefighters. Missing even a month of school, while inconvenient, is not,according to a study,
associated with negative academic outcomes, measured here by district level PSSA test performance, attendance and graduation rates."
The arguments for banning teacher strikes, as described in the Post-Gazette article, amount to typical teacher-bashing. One state representative said it's like letting
"inmates take over the asylum" when teachers who are hired to be public servants "hold the whole community hostage to their insane demands."
If there are sound, evidence-based educational reasons for banning teacher strikes, I'd like to hear them. Without such reasons, teachers must be permitted to use strikes as a last resort in negotiating for a fair contract.