Neither side realistic in teacher strike

Between school district 23 blinking at union demands while the union stands pat, both sides appear to not mirror the state of today's economy. The same week the Fed kept interest rates near zero while the 2016 Social Security COLA will be zero, both bargaining sides appear to lack reality.

Local housing prices and turnover are nearly stagnant, current salaries are declining to 20 percent less than the average PHEA teacher salary, the U.S. labor participation rate is the lowest in nearly 70 years and today's average raise is less than 2 percent while the PHEA union demands 4.5 percent and school district 23 offers 3.25 percent annual raises.

Both sides should immediately withdraw their demands and get back to educating and be glad that District 23 has a nominal surplus. This surplus should be used to deal with the state of Illinois' out of sync pension obligations.

The PHEA teachers and District 23 are not more deserving than the communities they serve. An annual salary raise request of nearly twice the national average shows greed beyond the taxpayer ability to support good teachers.

Dick Bernardi

Prospect Heights