School fix has a cost

Regarding “Striking abuses students,” (Letters, Feb.26): While the strike in Wisconsin is affecting teachers’ jobs, it also affects what will happen to students in the future; it affects other unions in Wisconsin as well as all U.S. students and unions.

In 2009 Wisconsin’s SAT scores ranked second in the U.S. Yet, their teachers’ salaries are ranked 20th. Their union is trying to do what anyone would do if someone was trying to take away their right to negotiate wage scales, working hours, training, overtime, health and safety: STRIKE.

By going after the collective bargaining agreements, Republicans are going after the project labor agreements, which are intended to stop the very thing you say abuses children: striking. This debacle is a power play by the heads of state to attack unions as a whole. Surely, if Wisconsin legislators really looked they could find other ways to fix the budget besides a stake through the heart.

What will the outcome be? Teachers will leave the state to obtain better wages and benefits right next door. Sound familiar? Teachers and workers alike drive from Idaho to work in Washington in order to obtain better wages than they can get in a “right to work” state.

Ethan LeGrand

Spokane Valley