I'm An Old Fuddy-Duddy and Cheapskate as Dixon Teachers Strike Ends

The Dixon, Illinois teachers strike has ended and the kids and teachers have returned to school after a two week hiatus.

Why am I not feeling good and in fact feeling bad about all this? Well, I guess the best answer is that maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy and cheapskate.

Strikes by public employees and especially strikes by public school teachers during the school year make absolutely no sense to me. They're just plain wrong.

In any case, Dixon Teachers Strike Ends has what to me is the 'bad good' news :

"DIXON, Illinois – Dixon teachers and administrators have reached a tentative agreement that ends a 15 day strike and returns students to the classrooms today.

The District and the teachers union issued this joint news release:

The Dixon Public Schools Board of Education and Dixon Education Association are pleased to announce that at 1:40 a.m., Wednesday morning, the parties reached agreement on a four-year contract. Both students and teachers will return to school on Wednesday, March 13th and begin ISAT testing by the end of this week.

The specific details of the contract will be made available after the teachers ratify and the Board approves the tentative agreement. The DEA plans to ratify the agreement on Monday, March 18th and the Board of Education will approve the agreement at its March 20th meeting.

The Board and DEA affirmed that with this strike now being resolved, it is time for the parties to put any disagreements behind them and move forward in a positive direction for the benefit of the students, parents and community.

“With the assistance of the federal mediator, both parties worked hard to find creative solutions to resolve the outstanding issues,” said Sandi Sodergren-Baar, President of the DEA. “We are confident that the settlement is the best one for our schools and will keep the District moving forward,” said Tom Balser, Board President."

Summing Up

Maybe I'm getting too old to think straight, but there is something very wrong about taxpayer paid teachers and their unions striking against parents, students and taxpayers in the middle of the school year.

But even worse, what bothers me more than that is that far too many of the parents and kids are undoubtedly supportive of the teachers and their union leadership. Oh well, it's only taxpayer money held hostage, I guess, so what's the big deal?

So to appease a grinch like me and hopefully many others as well, why don't all the Dixon supporters of the strike raise their hands and agree to have their property taxes doubled, and also agree to leave the property tax bills of those who opposed the strike unchanged?

And why don't the Illinois taxpayers who supported the strike agree to pay for those who opposed the strike? And ditto for the taxpayer funded federal government subsidies that Dixon receives. And any incremental increase in the unfunded pension liabilities for the state attributable to the strike as well.

That would make old fuddy-duddies and cheapskates like me feel better and it would probably help other taxpayers a little toward meeting their financial responsibilities at the same time.

I also wonder how much the kids have learned about human nature these past two weeks. If they've been paying careful attention, the lesson will be worth infinitely more than what they would have learned in the classroom.

Thus, I guess all's well that ends well. Until the next time when public employees decide to strike against their fellow taxpayers, that is.

Now I feel better.

Thanks. Bob.