Strike!

The teachers in Rogue River, Oregon have gone out on strike, the chairman of the school board has resigned, and all four schools are now closed. It's a mess:

Teachers and district officials have been at odds over a new contract for eight months. Contentious issues include salary, merit pay increases and cutting school days as a cost-saving measure.

After late-night negotiations with state mediators on Monday, the district's final offer was rejected by an overwhelming majority of teachers early Tuesday morning.

"The board challenged us to vote on this," Burns said to a crowd of about two dozen teachers gathered for an afternoon rally in the Rogue River High School parking lot. "And over 95 percent of you said 'no' to that offer."

Here in our California school district, we haven't had any sort of pay increase in nearly 5 years. That's the bad news. The good news is that our district has offered teachers a "one-time" payment of one-quarter of one percent. (.0025)

In my case, that would translate to 90 cents per day or, put another way, 18 cents per class.

Before taxes.

Heh. I'll be sure not to spend all that new wealth in one place.

Oops! I almost forgot, everyone's electric bills just went up $20-25 per month, so it's already taken care of.

Update:(04/14/06) The strike is over. Everybody seems to be claiming victory.
-----------------------------See our latest education-related entries right here.