Inside Report (1)

Now that it's back-to-school time, how many teachers will play hooky? Teacher strikes loom in Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, say that heavy teacher layoffs (NEA has reported 50,000 so far this fall) and money shortages in many school districts are making new teacher contracts harder to negotiable.

But the AFT says teachers, worried about sharp new rises in living costs, are not likely to be deterred, despite the tough attitudes being shown toward some strikers, such as air controllers.

It says that if a strike is the only way to get an equitable contract, teachers will walk out.m