WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING?

Maybe it isn't all about their salaries.

Maybe they want more for the schools and *gasp* better schools for the students.

Maybe they want LESS cuts in education.

Sometimes it takes a dramatic action to get people's attention. The first place the government makes budget cuts is in education which is the most idiotic thing in the world. Without education, WE WILL NOT MOVE FORWARD.

I agree with spirited, at the elmentry school my twins attend, the school had to cut two teachers because of budget cuts, both were the 4th grade teachers. Now they have part time teachers in the morning and in the afternoon the calsses are split some go into 3rd grade rooms and some into 5th grade room for the afternoon. It is difficult for the afternoon teachers to not only handle their class but take on half of another class in a different grade, with no aides.
That is ridiculous! The cuts to our education system are terrible!

And are the teachers actually saying they're on strike because they want more pay? If they're not, then I'd agree with the others, that it's probably more about the way education is being treated. I know I pulled my kids and started homeschooling because I wasn't happy with the way they were being educated. I went in for a parent teacher conference two months after the school year had started, and my 5th grader had learned nothing about history, geography, social studies because "we never have time for those." He thought Canada was in Alaska! That was unacceptable to me - but I had no time to try to add to his education, because he had so much homework. So I decided if I was spending all those hours helping with homework - why not change it and spend them doing his entire education, and making it more well rounded? Granted, I spend more time, but I'm happier with his education now. Maybe these teachers are trying to help.

While I do feel bad that these kids are missing out on some schooling this year which will affect them greatly, I also strongly feel there does need to be something done about our public school system. I still shudder at the thought that someday I have to send my DD to that awful institution.
This strike is affecting the whole community, and maybe that's just the jolt needed to bring on change. Let's hope so.

Saying teachers make over $100,00 a year sounds a little misleading to me. Im sure some teachers do, but not all teachers make the same salaries. There is a base amount for beginning teachers, and they move up with experience and continuing ed hours. So it sounds like the media was trying to be inflammatory saying teachers earn more than $100,00 a year when perhaps that's the top of the scale, and the truth is its just the older, tenured teachers who are earning that. Also, some school districts have a policy to get rid of teachers before they get tenured so they don't have to pay those wages so the districts is always in a state of flux hiring new, begining teachers. Maybe the strike has to do with that as well...

I will want more money also...

$100,000!!! I never heard of a teacher making $100,000. There are college professor jobs in the paper today that pay $54,000. That takes a PHD