Teachers' pay demands unreasonable

It shouldn't have come to this.

Huntley Unit District 158 teachers struck Monday for the first time after seven months of often arduous discussions - including 40 hours of meetings over the weekend - failed to produce a contract both sides could agree on.

The teachers union had proposed a raise in overall teacher compensation of 6 percent, 7 percent and 8 percent in the three years of a new contract.

The old contract expired at the end of last school year. The union and the school board brought in a mediator in June to help iron things out. And talks seemed to be going well until recent weeks, when the union began characterizing the school board as intractable, unwilling to negotiate. The board has argued the raises requested are out of line.

The union has said that Huntley teachers are some of the lowest paid in the area. The board has responded that Huntley teachers on balance have less experience than their counterparts in other districts. Both statements are true.

What's been missing in the union's bargaining, however, is a measure of common sense.

In these hard economic times, when many people have lost their jobs and homes and can't afford to fill their tanks, asking for all perceived wrongs to be righted at once is, well, out of touch.

In May in this space, we urged the Kane County Board to delay or reject a plan to give raises to elected department heads whose offices were up for election this fall. Before that, we urged the state legislature to reject raises for its leadership.

In both cases, we're talking about elected officials who ought to understand the hardships of their constituents.

You could argue that teachers are not elected so they shouldn't be held to the same standard.

But taxpayers fork over the salaries of both. And many of the taxpaying public are on a tighter household budget than a year ago.

The teachers have a sacred trust to educate our kids, and any consideration of a strike should be a last resort. From our perspective outside the closed door of negotiations, we don't feel it's gotten to that point.

If educating the students of the district is paramount, couldn't someone have suggested a one-year contract with a nominal pay increase with the thought that the deal might improve a year in the even the economy levels out?

As it is, the board on Sunday offered more than 5 percent for each of three years.

The board's rejection of the union's proposal can't be written off as an effort to retain their seats during the election next spring. The school board employs teachers, but is answerable to taxpayers as a whole for prudent use of their money.

Let's hope the tenor of talks improve as the two sides return to the bargaining table today.

Teacher strikes are always ugly. School districts often take years to heal. Just ask the good people of Cary, where the pain still lingers six years after their strike.

It shouldn't have come to this.