Teachers Strikeout

By TAD BARTIMUS

Standing in front of the canned tuna, I can't decide whether to buy white albacore or the less expensive stuff. My husband is on strike, and his paycheck has stopped. I have to make choices.

It takes me a full two minutes to decide on the albacore; at least he'll eat delicious sandwiches on the picket line.
My husband is one of 13,000 Hawaii schoolteachers who went on strike April 5 after working two years without a contract. A beginning teacher in Hawaii earns $29,000 per year, and the highest-paid K-12 educators get about $58,000. The American Federation of Teachers, factoring in Hawaii's cost of living, ranks it last in teachers' salaries.
My husband has taught 6th and 8th grades for five years and earns about $33,000. He'd always wanted to work with kids, so, at age 53, he summoned up his courage and enrolled in graduate school. He entered the classroom at age 56 with two new master's degrees and a lifetime of professional and personal experience. 
"I do this because some of my students must learn not only their ABCs but their values from me," my husband tells me. "If I don't do it, there's a chance it won't get done."
Why else work 10-hour days in an impossible bureaucracy, undervalued by the community, dealing with unruly and sometimes violent students, while putting up with parental indifference and occasional disrespect?
My husband prepares separate lesson plans in math, science, language arts, social studies, music and art every day. He also supervises physical education classes and has recess yard duty, where he frequently breaks up fights. He's come home black and blue from punches and kicks and is always vulnerable to lawsuits for stopping the violence.

There is no teachers' lounge, so he takes 15 minutes a day to eat his lunch at his desk. He waits his turn to use one of two toilets reserved for 36 teachers. Last year he spent more than $500 of our money to pay for photocopy paper, staplers, plastic crates to hold children's books, replacement dictionaries, scissors, science experiment supplies and other classroom items because the school budget had been cut. He regularly loans (gives!) children lunch money and pays for his classes' bottled drinking water.

Gov. Ben Cayetano, who got elected by promising to be "the education governor," says Hawaii can't afford the 22-percent increase teachers seek in a four-year, retroactive contract. His final pre-strike offer was 14 percent, most of it earmarked for new hires and retiring teachers. Three days into the walkout, Cayetano threatened to cut off benefits. The teachers' union went to court to try and stop him.

Strikes are awful -- a last resort nobody ought to welcome. The specter of this one hung over Hawaii for months. Now that it has happened, everybody worries about whether seniors will graduate, how out-of-school kids will be supervised, and if summer vacations must be canceled to make up for lost class days.

My husband nurses his 60-year-old feet and tries to view the strike as a learning experience. He's breaking in his new "buy one, get one half-price" pairs of walking shoes and feels better since his free back adjustment, courtesy of a chiropractor who set up his massage table near the picket line. He's cheerful when he bakes muffins for his colleagues at 4 a.m., and already has memorized several bad jokes he learned while marching in an endless circle.
But filling out his first-ever unemployment forms on Day 4, my educated, dedicated and principled husband looked pained.

"Here," I said, "cheer up. Have a sandwich. It's tuna. White albacore."

He smiled. I was glad I'd spent the extra two bucks for the good stuff. When you're on strike, it's the little victories that count. 

© 2001 The Women Syndicate

Visit TAD at www.tadbartimus.com and send your own great stories – 300 words or less – to friends@tadbartimus.com or write c/o The Women Syndicate, P.O. Box 728, Puunene, Hawaii 96784. Thanks for sharing.

© 2001 The Women Syndicate. The content on these pages is the property of The Women Syndicate and may not be used without express written permission. Contact friends@tadbartimus.com