When teachers walk the picket line, children are the big losers, caught in the middle of a conflict to which they are central but over which they have no control. When teachers and school boards go at each other during contract negotiations, things can be said and done that tear at the fabric of the school community as well as the community at large. When school board members squabble among themselves, and when union members' differences become public, the effectiveness of the respective groups to represent their constituents and serve the children is diminished.
Cash is all that counts.
It's a lesson in capitalism, and cynicism, for the kids, that sends a very wrong message. Extremists among both union activists and property taxaphobes grab the stage and paint each other as villains of the peace, sacrificing reason and civility in single-minded assertions of their own egos. It doesn't have to be that way. Teacher contract negotiations don't have to be about distrust, greed, political grandstanding and the like. They can be about fairness and mutual advantage.