Striking teachers get more than they bargained for

The West Chester Daily Local News has published the salaries of all the teachers in the Downingtown Area School District in its Sunday edition.

The teachers, who are on strike, say they were insulted by the school district's offer of four consecutive years of salary increases: 4.4, 4.5, 4.5 and 4.6 percent, which amounts to an average annual increase of 4.5 percent.

The newspaper obtained the salaries from www.stopteacherstrikes.org, the Web site for Stop Teacher Strikes in Pennsylvania, a citizens coalition that wants Pennsylvania to join 39 other states in banning teacher strikes.

The salaries in Downingtown range from starting pay of $43,000 to as high as $82,000. Downingtown teachers are among the highest paid in Chester County, but the teachers' union says their members are forced to leave for jobs in neighboring districts that pay more.