Pennsylvania school districts have experienced more than 1,000 strikes by unions representing teachers and other employees since 1970, the year the passage of Act 195 gave teachers and other public employees a near-unlimited right to strike.

It is a number about which the Keystone State deserves to feel embarrassed. Based on that troubling statistic, Pennsylvania has the dubious distinction of being the "teacher strike capital" of the United States.

Meanwhile, across the country, at least 37 states prohibit teacher strikes, having embraced the correct attitude that children and taxpayers have a right to expect strike-free education from public money.

Pennsylvania's continued resistance to that thinking is the seed that has contributed to yet another strike — the second in less than a year — in the South Butler School District, where teachers' previous contract expired on June 30, 2008. The district's 185 teachers walked off the job on Monday after the latest round of negotiations failed to produce enough progress to avert the walkout.

No additional talks reportedly had been scheduled.

The district's teachers also held an 18-day strike last fall that failed to bring about a settlement.

As of Monday, the points of disagreement remained unchanged from when contract negotiations began prior to the expiration of the previous contract: wages, despite the teachers' having downsized their pay demand a bit; health care, in which the teachers do not want to pay more than their current $10 a month for individual coverage and $20 a month for family coverage and are resisting a higher deductible; the district's desire to lengthen the school day to seven hours and 30 minutes from seven hours and 20 minutes; and early retirement.

The start of this latest South Butler strike illustrates the need for Pennsylvania to embrace the stance that most other states have adopted — a stance that has not compromised educational quality in those states.

Indeed, how can anyone imply that disruption of a school year doesn't harm students — if only breaking the pattern of learning and requiring otherwise unnecessary classroom reviews?

While it's up to the school district and teachers to forge their agreement, the public can't help but observe that the teachers, despite lowering their pay demands, still are making excessive wage and benefit demands when compared with what many other workers are receiving in the current economy.

The teachers' latest proposal calls for raises of 4.3 percent in each year of a five-year contract, down from 5.2 percent per year.

The school district's latest salary offer, which is not stingy, is 2.03 percent, retroactive for the 2008-09 school year; 3.6 percent for 2009-10; 3.84 percent for 2010-11; 4.19 percent for 2011-12; and 4.34 percent for 2012-13.

Meanwhile, the average teacher pay is $51,249; starting pay is $33,621.

In 1992, Pennsylvania's Act 88 was passed to impose some limits on teachers' right to strike. Under that law, 180 academic days must be completed in the school year by June 15.

Strikes still can last up to a month, and still can occur year after year in a school district — a provision that South Butler's latest walkout illustrates.

But one important fact remains:

South Butler students don't deserve this educational disruption. Neither do the people of the district whose tax money helps fund the educational system nor the parents whose schedules or work duties are disrupted when a strike occurs.

There have been efforts in the state General Assembly in the past to implement a "last best offer" requirement for resolving school labor impasses. That proposal would have established an eight-month negotiating timeline.

If the teachers union and school board were unable to resolve their contract differences through a variety of means, including an impartial arbitration panel, each side would submit a "last best offer" to the county's president judge, who would be required to select one of the two competing proposals.

The judge's decision would be final and binding.

Most people can understand why judges might be reluctant to favor such a requirement, but Pennsylvania needs some means for avoiding teacher strikes and that proposal is one workable plan.

Looking toward the "inside" from the "outside," it would seem that a solution to South Butler's dilemma would be more possible without the outside influence of the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the district's paid negotiator — South Butler School Board members and leaders of the South Butler Education Association meeting alone, face to face, and not ceasing talks until a settlement is reached.

District residents deserve extraordinary efforts to end the impasse. Up to now, they haven't gotten that.

— J.R.K.