European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 21, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday september 21, 1978 the stars and stripes Page 5 foxhole mentality1 grips teachers by Glenn Ritt new York a teachers frustrated by inflation and classroom turmoil Are encountering voters equally inflation weary and frustrated by falling student test scores. The result is teachers strikes hitting a near record Pace As the school year  there is a growing conviction among school officials Union leaders an teachers that the discontent is so deep and Complex that september s turbulence will Only intensify in the months  Shanker president of the 500,000 member american federation of teach ers says his members Are developing a foxhole . Thomas Shannon executive director of the National school boards association sees a new dimension in negotiations. After years of concessions he says school boards want to get something Back for what they Are giving  approach record by mid september teachers had called50 strikes nationwide and the National education association estimates such a Pace could put Job actions by year s end at least near the record of 203 set in 1975-76.strikes have affected school districts ranging from Philadelphia with 250,000 students to Oak Harbor wash., with 5,300  teachers grow angry Over their Situa Tion school officials watch and sometimes Are controlled by the voters mood. Citi Zens whose own incomes have been Cut by inflation Are voting Down school budget in creases and the tax revolt fuelled by Cali fornia s proposition 13 is Only increasing the  Bridgeport conn., where More than 100 teachers have been jailed in a strike Ellen Wisser an English teacher with three children in College sat by a Tele phone at her Union s crisis  underestimated our strength i can t believe it s come to this she said. But they be underestimated our strength. We won t be stripped of our Dignin  is More than dignity being jeopardized of course. Between september 1975 and june 1978, teacher salaries nationwide Rose an average 5.9 percent while inflation averaged More than 7.1 percent. We Haven t even kept up with inflation says Chuck Richards an american federation of teachers official in Wash  Federal government estimates a Public school teacher this year will earn an average of $15,250. In 1960 dollars to offset inflation s Impact that comes to Only $6,750.teachers Are not alone however. It is difficult for taxpayers to show compassion when statistics show teachers real wages increased 32 percent since 1960 compared to Only 16 percent for All private non farm workers. Yes we have scored some Success says Terry Herndon executive director of the 1.8 million member Nea. But now we want to sustain those gains and inflation $4 million okd for Caribbean Aid Washington a the Agency for International development says it will pro vide $4 million Over the next four years for agricultural and health projects in the Ca  said it has Given $625,000 to the Caribbean agriculture research and development Institute to help in a $4.86 million agriculture research program to Benefit Small Farmers in the Eastern  plans to contribute a total of $2.2 Mil lion to the program Over the next four  addition Aid said it has Given $1 Mil lion to the Caribbean Community secretariat for the first part of a 3-year project in. Basic health management planning. The i Agency plans to contribute $800,000 Morei Over the life of the project. Threatens to erode our  Smith 30, a Bridgeport Art teacher earns about $10,500 a year and understands Herndon s View. I can t save anything. I m paying $260 a month for an apartment and utilities. I be got a car to commute 40 Miles a Day and a student loan to pay  i m probably a Little above aver age because i Don t have any children to support Smith says. That same inflation has stimulated voters to approve such measures As proposition 13 and to defeat a growing number of school  new York voters rejected 14.8 per cent of school budgets in the 1974-75 school year but 29 percent last year. In new Jersey the 1974-75 rejection rate of 24.6percent has grown to 57.5 percent. Frustrated taxpayers have a Chance to express themselves on Only one form of taxation and that s when they vote for school budgets Richards explains. He says it s totally inequitable that schools should be hit More than other Public services and the Nea s Herndo complains the fallout from proposition 13 is also unfair to education. The protest is to an undefined Dimen Sion of government Herndon says. The Public does not want to reduce expenditures for education but there s no question that Public schools Are caught in the  to Many school boards this Public anger translates into support in negotiations. Teachers have been in an eternally up situation and boards Are now looking at this very carefully says  bitterly criticizes this new negotiating posture. They re attempting to remove things we negotiated and won inthe past. They re using this to generate a crisis  school Board austerity also come threats to Job Security and classroom conditions. An Nea study indicates teachers Are worried too by Large classes student discipline school crime and Public criticism of teachers because of students fall ing test  morale problems teachers and Union leaders agree often fuel the  like the salary Issue their Resolution often lies with Money an increasingly rare  can t get blood from a turnip says Shannon describing the fiscal plight of Many school boards facing teacher de mands. Shannon and Union leaders agree How Ever that the culprit is not teachers or school boards but property taxes. The property tax never was designed to sup port education to the degree it s expected to today Richards says. And As All Levels of government begin to scramble for the shrinking tax Dollar Shannon says school boards May be unserious Contention with City and county  Dayton and Bridgeport striking teachers jailed in 2 cities by United press International police rounded up striking teachers and carted them off to jail in Dayton Ohio an Bridgeport conn., tuesday and a show of Solidarity by Cleveland teachers foiled efforts to reopen classrooms to 101,000  up Survey showed school strikes in 11 states curtailed classes for More than 440, 000 pupils from kindergartens to College  teachers and school bus Drivers set up picket lines at a school bus garage i Defiance of a judge s no picketing order and were quickly taken into custody. Police said 40 to 50 strikers were arrested. Substitutes and school administrator kept classes open for Dayton s 37,000 pupils. Bridgeport police rounded up 47 teach ers who defied a judge s Back to work order put them on buses and shipped them to a makeshift jail to join 135 of their col leagues including their negotiating team previously imprisoned for defying the  schools were closed to the District s 23,000 pupils for the fifth Straightway. Schools had been kept open during the Early Days of the 10-Day teachers strike but classrooms were shut Down when the Supply of substitutes and volunteers  said negotiations to Settle the Bridgeport walkout would resume in Hart Ford  school officials unable to coax or intimidate substitute teachers to Cross picket lines cancelled classes. The two week walkout has shut Down school for a week and negotiations continued under court , minn., teachers walked off their jobs closing schools for 10,800 pupils in the state s first teachers strike of the school  strikes at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti and at two Detroit area Community colleges halted classes for 43,000 students and a walkout by Cleri Cal workers hampered registration at Wayne state University in  snub Union but More than a third of the 1,400 teach ers in Detroit s suburban Warren Consoli dated school District fourth largest in the state went to classes ignoring a Union vote recommending that they continue their strike. A tentative contract agree ment also sent 150 striking teachers Back to work in Durand Mich Warren and Mona shores were the Only Michigan elementary and High school districts still affected by  at Chicago s City colleges strike bound for four weeks said some of the system s 110,000 students Are seeking tuition refunds. School officials said these Mester will be cancelled unless the strike ends by sept. 25.lingering walkouts halted classes in Seattle and Tacoma wash., and smaller strikes were reported in Illinois califor Nia Massachusetts new York new Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of time striking out for food Hal Bouhasin a teacher at John Hay High school in Cleveland applies for food Stamps while holding his 4-year old daughter Ann in his Lap. It would have been payday except for the teach ers strike. Up photo sept. 21, 1948 . Mediator count Folke Bernadotte declared the . Should step in to end the bitter Palestine War if the arabs and jews fail to make . 21, 1958 the first american made Thor rocket arrived at the Royal air Force launching station at Ely England another step toward making the British Isles a base for nato Hydrogen bombs to strike Back at any . 21, 1968 the Senate appropriations committee recommended defens spending of $71.9 billion during the current fiscal year with about a third of it ear marked for the Vietnam War