A Fighting Mood

The nation's restive school teachers continue to display their fighting mood. As a statewide walkout in Florida went into its second week, new teacher strikes broke out in Pittsburgh and San Francisco and tension grew in Oklahoma and South Dakota. Teachers in Albuquerque went back to work, ending a six-day strike--but only after winning a commitment from New Mexico officials to seek more money for schools.

The Pittsburgh and San Francisco strikes were staged by units of the American Federation of Teachers (an A.F.L.-C.I.O. affiliate) in a drive for bargaining rights and school improvements. The walkout of 1,000 of Pittsburgh's 3,100 teachers forced the closing of all 24 high schools, although 65% of the city's elementary pupils continued to attend class. In San Francisco, 1,500 of the city's 4,000 teachers struck, and all the schools were closed.

The Pittsburgh strike was a response to Superintendent Sidney Marland's insistence that there must be "a better way" for teachers to influence educational policy than to join a union, and to a flat refusal by the city's school board to bargain with the union. San Francisco school officials first claimed that California law prevented them from dealing with a union, later relented, but the talks broke off as the union made 92 demands, claimed that Superintendent Robert Jenkins was moving too slowly on the negotiations.

One-Day Walkouts. The rival National Education Association was flexing its muscles, too. The Pennsylvania State Education Association called on its 80,000 teachers to shut down the state's schools for one day this week and undertake a march on Harrisburg to demand higher pay. The Oklahoma Education Association scheduled a similar one-day walkout, urged its 27,000 teachers to attend a rally in Oklahoma City to apply pressure on the state legislature for more school money. In South Dakota, the state's Education Association declared a "sanctions alert" in a drive to increase salaries and legislative aid to schools.

Striking teachers of N.E.A. affiliates in Albuquerque returned to work after Governor David Cargo agreed to appoint a special task force to recommend school improvements to the legislature. In Florida, Governor Claude Kirk belatedly agreed to sign into law a $254 million school-appropriations bill passed by his Democratic-controlled legislature--thus abandoning his promise not to raise taxes. Although the measure provides for $58 million in salary increases, the teachers insist that even more money is needed for new kindergarten classes, more textbooks and additional teachers, want assurances that the state will consider the Florida Education Association the bargaining agent for all of the state's teachers.

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