The Nation - News from Sept. 12, 1988

Striking teachers in six states vowed to remain on the picket line today, but weekend settlements of three disputes promised to return at least 1,200 instructors and 17,000 students to class in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Illinois. The end of walkouts in the suburban Philadelphia school district of Spring Ford, and in Lowell, Mass., and Blue Ridge, Ill., reduces the number of students out of school to fewer than 100,000 for the first time this academic year. Don Morabito, of the Pennsylvania State Education Assn., said the 208 teachers agreed to teach their 3,300 students for 30 calendar days as long as bargaining on a new contract continues. Last week, walkouts by 10,609 teachers affected 113,872 students in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Nearly all the disputes involved salary.