We sympathize with all parties negotiating the teachers’ contracts: once talks become rancorous and public, it’s hard to go back to amicable discussions. It’s easy to assume that it’s just the School Committee and the teachers who are trying to reach agreement. But many more groups and individuals are involved. The selectmen and the Finance Committee have a stake in the outcome, because they have to balance the needs of the whole town; all taxpayers are interested, because they have to pay for whatever is agreed to; parents of children in the school system worry that their children won’t receive a good education; and, we believe, the union negotiators worry that if they back down, other towns will bargain harder for concessions.

That said, we hope that the School Committee will stick to its position and that the union will agree to accept the 70/30 split that they’ve been refusing to consider for three years. It’s a reasonable offer. The charts in this week’s Reporter Notebook show that our teachers are paid competitive salaries, and the benefits package is extremely generous. The step increase teachers receive just for staying one more year in their jobs (for the first 13 years) is unheard of in any other industry.

In our town, parents’ expectations may create pressure, but teachers aren’t faced with the challenges of a high percentage of children with uninvolved parents and constant worry about their own physical safety, as is the case in many other school systems.

Parents’ expectations are also one of the reasons that Harvard children will receive a good education. Most people in town value education, and it’s often what happens at home that determines whether or not the children will learn, regardless of how much money is spent on buildings or administrators or books or supplies—or teachers.
We hope that the teachers’ contract negotiators can accept the fair and competitive contract that’s been offered. That would be a lesson worth teaching the town’s children.