Education: No Contract, No Work

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U.S. teachers, the poorest paid of all professional workers, were fed up with genteel poverty. Last week even the cautious, conservative go-year-old National Education Association (775,000 members) began to make noises like a union.

In Washington, N.E.A.'s Executive Secretary Willard Givens called on teachers throughout the U.S. to organize "salary committees," and hit their school boards for general raises. It was a surprising change of front for N.E.A., which includes not only classroom teachers but school administrators.

Until present contracts run out, said Givens, teachers have no business striking. But nobody can force them to sign up again next fall unless the contracts look a lot better. If they don't, said Givens, teachers should take a lesson from John L. Lewis: "No contract, no work." N.E.A.'s estimate of proper salaries: $2,400 a year for qualified beginners, $4,000 to $6,000 for experienced teachers.

Warned N.E.A.: "Teachers are no longer willing to work for starvation wages. They refuse to stay in a profession with salaries less than those of the bartender and garbage collector."