STOPTEACHERSTRIKES PROFILES 120,000 PENNSYLVANIA TEACHERS.

StopTeacherStrikes, Inc., Yardley, Pa., has announced the provocative action that it has profiled the individual names, salaries and job-related information of over 120,000 classroom teachers in Pennsylvania. The online database created by the NJ-based Asbury Park Press newspaper is being accessed by taxpayers to review the 2006-2007 salaries of teachers working in all 501 public school districts in Pennsylvania.

StopTeacherStrikes founder and public school parent, Simon Campbell, commented:

"Freedom of information has combined with freedom of the press to shatter the union-promoted myth of the underpaid teacher in Pennsylvania. Presidential and state legislative candidates hunting for teacher union money and votes are hiding under the table, when it comes to issues like ending teacher strikes and forced unionism in Pennsylvania. From 2000 to 2007, 82 (60%) of the nation's 137 teacher strikes occurred in Pennsylvania with 162,000 innocent children affected over the last five school years. Pennsylvania retains the dubious distinction of being the teacher-strike capital of the United States, while thirty-seven (37) other states prohibit teacher strikes. Recent strike threats such as those seen at Cumberland Valley and Northwest Area school districts cost taxpayers millions of dollars because paying a monopoly union not to strike is like paying a bank robber not to rob your bank."

Campbell continued:

"Public employees seeking to become president or employees hired locally by school districts are all public servants. Ejecting innocent children from school for personal financial gain is totally unacceptable. Every candidate for federal, state and local office must be held accountable for this abuse of children. They either support teacher strikes or they do not. There is no middle ground. Pennsylvania's voters should ask every candidate where they stand -- and should not tolerate any political double-talk. Pennsylvania's teachers rank among the highest paid in the nation (top 20%), and enjoy fantastic benefits and job security. Meanwhile everyday families struggle to pay Pennsylvania's escalating school property taxes -- caused in no small part by the massive political clout of the National Education Association (NEA) and their powerful 185,000 member state affiliate, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA)."

For more information, call 215/586-3573 or visit http://www.stopteacherstrikes.org.