Tough talk aside, kids come first

The three largest school districts in Kootenai County have all been to the bargaining table multiple times since the school year ended, and none has yet come away with a negotiated agreement. Sometimes there's outright acrimony in these sessions; sometimes the disagreement is more respectful. But to date, disagreement reigns in the Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland school districts.

As the newspaper continues to report demands from teachers union representatives and counteroffers from district negotiators, taxpayer temperatures tend to mirror a fiscal heat wave. To many citizens outside the classroom, talk of every teacher getting a raise from a little over 1 percent to more than 11 percent can be difficult to comprehend. Consider that our school districts are also offering to absorb higher health care premiums, saving teachers that additional cost, and comprehension difficulty can give way to taxpayer anger and frustration.

But as we pause in the midst of this multifaceted impasse, let's look at the bright side of these negotiations. To do that, gaze over to the west.

Less than two months ago, thousands of Washington teachers staged one-day strikes, walking out on their classrooms in protest of multiple funding complaints. Some did so with expressed support from community members, but the point is, they still walked out on the job. A day of learning was lost for hundreds of thousands of Washington students.

We're proud of the fact that in Kootenai County, no matter how tense negotiations might become or how disappointed some teachers might be after not getting what they think they've earned, there is no talk of strikes or any other action that would harm or hold back students. As Lakeland and others have demonstrated, teachers sometimes work faithfully without a contract.

Demands seen as selfish or disingenuous on both sides of the negotiating table are the substance of ongoing talks, but they are not the bottom line in Kootenai County. The bottom line is that educating students is the highest priority, and in that regard, our districts consistently excel.