Public Schools: Strike's Bitter End

The New York City teachers' strike, which denied 1,100,000 children formal schooling for 36 school days in three separate walkouts this fall, finally ended last week. As might be expected in so bitter a battle, the terms of settlement—reached after a 27-hour weekend negotiating session—did not really please anyone. In the long view, the militant United Federation of Teachers may have lost far more than it won.

The terms of settlement named a state-appointed trustee, Associate Education Commissioner Herbert F. Johnson, for the experimental Ocean Hill-Brownsville decentralized district, which was the focus...