Pennsylvania Anti-Strike Bill Set for Hearing, Rankles Union

The Pennsylvania House Education Committee is about to hold Cheap Rosetta Stone Software a hearing on a controversial bill that could quell union action in the state’s schools.After three and a half years of conflict between itself and its teachers, the Neshaminy School District will host a state hearing on a bill that would make teachers strikes and school lockouts illegal, writes Bill Reed at Philly.The Pennsylvania House Education Committee, chaired by Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, will discuss House Bill 1369, sponsored by Rep. Todd Rock, R-Franklin.Leaders of the union and the school board are expected to speak at the hearing, in addition to representatives of the American Federation of Teachers, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Commonwealth Foundation, writes Reed.The bill contains financial penalties, including a $5,000 individual fine, per incident, for inciting a strike; striking teachers losing two days of pay for each day of an illegal strike; and the striking union forfeiting its dues check-off privilege for one year, writes Reed.Thirty-seven states currently prohibit teacher strikes. Whilst, Pennsylvania, in the past decade has had 94 teacher strikes which, according to Rock’s website, have affected up to 247,000 students.Teachers in the district have not gotten a pay raise since 2007 and they are about to begin their fourth year without a contract. In June, the 700 members of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers authorized leadership to call a strike.This comes after school board officials met with parents at a state House Education Committee and were told that Pennsylvania must prohibit teacher strikes to ensure that children get the education they deserve, as Rosetta Stone French Reed reported at the Post-Gazette.With teacher strikes, there are no winners, said Committee Chairman Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, a cosponsor of the bill. There are nasty strikes and no winners.No childs education should be disrupted by a strike or work-to-contract action, said Rep. Frank Farry, R-Bucks, a cosponsor of the bill and a Neshaminy resident. Students should not be penalized because adults are not able to agree on a labor contract.Jerry Oleksiak, vice president-elect of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said, No strikes have been proven to impact student achievement. None of them. Funding cuts and significant reductions in programs proven to work for student learning, however, will almost definitely have a negative impact on student achievement.This coming school year could be the fourth year that teachers in the Neshaminy School District have started school without a contract, writes John McDervitt at CBS Philly.“When school starts for teachers on August 29th,” Neshaminy Federation of Teachers’ president Louise Boyd says, “we will follow the following procedures: teachers will report to work each day 15 minutes before the bell; we will meet at the flag pole each Steelers Jerseys morning and walk inside to school together. We will leave school 15 minutes after the final bell. Teachers will prioritize work for each given day. We will not take work home from school (although) teachers will participate in student orientations and scheduled back-to-school nights.”In spite of the result of the bill hearing, Boyd is not ruling out striking in the future.“We have had several meetings with our membership and we have been authorized to take a strike when needed,” she told KYW Newsradio today.