Renewed effort to ban teacher strikes in Pa.

StopTeacherStrikes Inc. is asking Pennsylvania's 501 school districts to adopt a resolution asking Pennsylvania elected officials to ban teacher strikes.

Pennsylvania public school teachers are among the highest paid in the country, with an average salary of $54,000, but Pennsylvania continues to lead the nation in teacher strikes.

Thirty-seven states have passed laws banning teacher strikes. All of the remaining states that allow teacher strikes combined still had fewer strikes as Pennsylvania over the past decade.

The Pennsbury School Board in Bucks County is the first school board in the Pennsylvania to adopt the anti-strike resolution.

Simon Campbell, who heads the grassroots movement to ban teacher strikes, posted the following information about the campaign at the group's Web site.

He also notes that the local teachers union is upset with the Pennsbury decision.

The Bucks County Courier Times is also on board with the strike ban with an editorial, "A strike against strikes."

"The Pennsbury School Board took a public stand on an important issue where many week-kneed state legislators will not," Campbell says. "They are now sending a copy of their signed resolution to Gov. Rendell and all Bucks legislators. This activity helps put pressure on the legislature. We encourage all activists to contact their local school board to do the same thing as Pennsbury did."

Fiscally responsible school board directors should have no problem passing this "no-brainer" resolution, Campbell says.

Part of the reason we encourage school boards to take matters into their own hands is because their monopoly lobbying association, the PSBA (who are funded by the tax dollars they receive from school districts), show no leadership, according to Campbell.

The PSBA's official position is that they are forming a task force, to launch a committee, to organize a sub-committee, to create a study group - who will report three years from Sunday as to their position," Campbell notes.

Visit the Stop Teacher Strikes Web site here to download a copy of the resolution for distribution to your local school board.