Teachers in the Seneca Valley and Slippery Rock school districts have exercised their right to reject a pay freeze for the 2011-12 school year, deciding not to help their districts resolve their financial crises.

What that means is that the two school boards must exercise their right — and duty — to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure balanced budgets for next year, despite uncertainty over state subsidy figures.

That uncertainty is due to the state Legislature's inability to pass the commonwealth's 2011-12 budget early enough for school systems to have firm subsidy amounts to plug into their own budgets — although districts may reopen their budgets and adjust revenue amounts and tax rates after getting accurate numbers from Harrisburg.

Gov. Tom Corbett is proposing to reduce state education subsidies significantly for the new year. He also has asked for shared sacrifice, requesting that teachers unions agree to a one-year pay freeze to help districts balance their budgets.

Seneca Valley and Slippery Rock teachers have rejected the governor's request, opting not to help their districts deal with their challenging fiscal situations. Teachers in a number of Keystone State school districts, however, have agreed to the requested freezes.

Seneca Valley is faced with what intially was said to be a $10 million budget deficit. Slippery Rock's initial shortfall figure was listed as $2.55 million, although on Monday it was reported that cuts and pay freezes to employees other than teachers had trimmed all but $655,000 of that red ink.

The Seneca Valley board plans to take final action on its 2011-12 spending plan on Monday, while Slippery Rock's final budget action apparently will take place in June.

Under their contracts, Seneca Valley teachers will receive a 3.75 percent pay increase for 2011-12, and Slippery Rock teachers, 4 percent — both well above the inflation rate.

The Seneca Valley board said Monday that it wasn't immediately sure how much a voluntary pay freeze by teachers would have saved the district. That lack of knowledge might have been based on uncertainty over how many teaching positions might be cut for the coming year, but the board should have been prepared to show taxpayers what the savings would be if no positions were cut.

District taxpayers are entitled to some perspective to help them form opinions about the teachers' stance.

Slippery Rock officials estimated that their district's savings would have been $437,000 if its teachers would have agreed to a freeze. That would have eliminated about two-thirds of the remaining projected deficit.

Kathleen Strickland, vice president of the Slippery Rock board, said the teachers union had informed the board that it would not consider a pay freeze until the district prepares a final budget identifying all additional cuts, tax increases, eliminated positions and how much of the district's fund balance will be used to balance the budget.

That's a reasonabe position, if the teachers union really intends to reconsider its refusal.

Seneca Valley teachers offered no window for reconsidering their decision. A letter from the Seneca Valley Education Association said teachers wish “to adhere to the new collective bargaining agreement” that is effective July 1.

With large budget deficits anticipated for the next several years — a situation dogging many districts — tough decisions, including further reductions in teacher ranks, will continue to face the board.

Many baby boomers recall that during their days in school, it was not uncommon for their classes to have 30 or 35 students — and they still managed to get a good education.

Larger class sizes and fewer teachers might be the only option for the future, now that the excessive generosity accorded by school boards to teachers unions over the years have come back to haunt districts, including Seneca Valley and Slippery Rock

A 2010 national survey found that U.S. teachers are more interested in school reform and student achievement than their paychecks.

Seneca Valley and Slippery Rock taxpayers have cause to wonder whether any teachers in their districts participated in that poll.