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Show Editorials TIME TO PULL VnIIO'S bootstraps The school teachers say they ain't gonna teach next year if the Governor don't give 'em more money, and the Governor says he signed a bill that gives 'em more money than he wanted to give 'em and there ain't gonna be no more. And the NEA backs Mr. Evans of the UEA and the BYU and USU and U of U say the teachers oughta go slow, and the Society of Protessors says the teachers are doin' right, the National School Boards Ass'n don't agree, and the general public is awfully confused but knows one thing , . they're the ones that pay the bills for the teachers' salaries, for construction of schools, purchase of textbooks and supplies, sup-plies, and for the maintenance and operation opera-tion of the schools. And the general public ain't happy. There isn't a taxpaying father or mother in Utah that doesn't want the best education he can pay for for his children. There probably are teachers teachers with BS degree to $4400 for 182-day 182-day contract and to $4840 for 200-day contract con-tract ... for brand new beginning teachers teach-ers with BS degree. The av.rage working man or professional profes-sional man works 251 days a year, after knocking off Saturdays and Sundays and two-week vacation. The 200-day contract calls for 10 weeks less work (Saturdays and Sundays have already been deducted). Beaver County is now offering to put 74 of its entire operation and maintenance funds into teacher salaries. This in addition to the school board payments pay-ments of social security, retirement benefits, bene-fits, etc. We believe the teachers of Beaver County are "willing" to accept the contracts con-tracts offered (one teacher is reported to have remarked "It's the best contract I ever had"), but that they feel they must "stick with the UEA." We don't object to their sticking with the "Wasatch Front" up to a certain point but if the UEA insists upon being adamant and unbending, we'd like to remind the Beaver County teachers that they have obligations to the Beaver County and Utah taxpayers as well as to their union. who are interested solely in salary, Dut we think the majority of the teachers are sincerely interested in educating the youth of our nation or they wouldn't be in the profession. We may get challenged on that statement state-ment by folks who remember a few years back when some state educators 'released' the information that when college students were on the verge of flunking out in their selected major, they were encouraged to transfer to education and were graduated as teachers. But we remember a Baptist minister minis-ter in deep South Texas who told us, when we were about 19, that he felt teachers were "called" to their profession profes-sion the same as ministers or preachers (corresponding to Mormon bishops and missionaries) were "called" to preach the Gospel of the Lord. Not too many years ago we would have been angry at the teachers if they had threatened to walk out on our children and THEIR accepted and chosen obligations. obliga-tions. Today, we feel like taking a different differ-ent slant. We feel that Beaver County schools are excellent schools with excellent excel-lent teachers. They definitely have been greatly improved in recent years. We have been particularly impressed with re- We think that in telling the Governor Gover-nor of the State of Utah that he'll either "do it or else" the UEA has gone too far. We think the Governor has given more than he felt he should give, and now the teachers should do a little giving. It's time for compromise . . . time for study.., The Legislative Council has been told to thoroughly study the Utah school picture, pic-ture, and while that study is being completed, com-pleted, let's have harmony. Of course, if the only way we can have harmony is to give in to the UEA demands, then there IS no harmony. Perhaps the UEA, having demanded the CAPS program and having refused to budge, up to this point, should express a willingness to accept contracts if the county school teacher associations feel the offered contracts are the best the local boards can offer at this time, on condition that a special committee be appointed by the Governor, including talented men of finance, construction, education, labor relations re-lations and business management, to spend the time between now and the 1965 session ses-sion of the Legislature studying the over-'i all Utah school picture, and make recommendations recom-mendations to the Legislature which they consider equitable to the teachers, the taxpayers, tax-payers, and especially the students. One thing we feel such a committee cials lauding the willingness and even anxiousness of the members of our Board of Education to insist that every possible progress be made in furthering education in Beaver County. We are told that Utah is far below the national average in per capita support of our students, far below the national average in teacher salaries, far below the national average in about everything the UEA can dig up to indicate that we ain't doing much of a job in education. They don't say much about Utah parents par-ents being so prolific and having so many more children per thousand population to educate, or the fact that Utah spends more percentage of per capita income on education, edu-cation, or the percentage of untaxable Church-owned property and untaxable federal fed-eral lands in the state, or the recently revealed re-vealed fact that Utah has more persons per capita on the "education" payroll (teachers, (teach-ers, supervisors, counselors, what else?) than any other state in the nation. In 1962 total Beaver County taxes amounted to $441,353.95, of which $269,-994.09 $269,-994.09 were school district taxes and $42,-9S1.13 $42,-9S1.13 were state school taxes. This was 62.2 local school taxes and 9.7 state school taxes, for a total of 70.9 of all taxes paid in Beaver County going to the schools. What percentage of our taxes SHOULD go for support of our schools? Let's see what the teachers are not satisfied with. In Utah, support of schools is reported at $100 per child behind the western states average, but rural areas of Utah are in many instances better off than the other western states. In B eaver County teachers were offered of-fered contracts calling for increases of up to $1048 per year for teachers holding MS degrees with 15 years of experience. That adds up to $6888 per year for a 200-day work year. Women teachers have been offered contracts calling for $6280 for a 182-day work year, if they have MS degree de-gree and 15 years of teaching. We think that's a pretty fair wage. Starting wages for first-year teachers have been increased $400 from $4000 for should give serious study to is the elimination elimi-nation of non-essential frills in our eduj cational program in Utah, which would give us more money for essentials. We are told that Beaver County "accepted" another an-other student counselor because "it won't cost us anything . . . it'll be paid for by the state." That's asinine. If we NEED counselors let's have them, but don't let's load the district with non-essential classes, un-needed personnel, or any other frills . . . nothing that is not NEEDED. There's undoubtedly a lot about the school operation and the school programs that we don't understand. But we do understand un-derstand one thing. The tax-paying public pub-lic pays the bills for the necessities and the frills. And we're tired, along with the rest of the taxpaying public, of ever-increasing ever-increasing taxes. The UEA has done one thing demanded more money. They haven't offered any suggestions as to ! where that money is to come from. We think it's their obligation, as well as the Governor's and the Legislators' and the taxpayers, to help figure out a program or a plan to raise the money. Both sides should look at the overall picture. They should be interested in cutting the nonessentials non-essentials and helping plan a way to channel chan-nel the available funds into the needed programs including salaries, buildings and textbooks. We want the best there is in the wayi of education. But we also think the teachers teach-ers should get ahold of their own bootstraps boot-straps by evidencing a desire to work with the Governor, the Legislators and the guys who pay the taxes . . . offer something in the way of suggestions and willingness to cooperate, rather than just demanding. Do the demands of Mr. Evans reflect the wishes and opinions of the rank and file members of the UEA? Are the majority major-ity of the Utah teachers unwilling to accept ac-cept "the greatest effort that has ever been made in Utah history?" We'll undoubtedly hear from some of the Beaver County teachers. We hope we receive letters from many of them. How do you other taxpayers feel? |