Philadelphia Fails to Avert Teacher Strike

Negotiations to end a strike and allow 210,000 Philadelphia students to go to school appeared to have failed, negotiators said. Mayor John Street was pessimistic about the prospects of an overnight agreement. The members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers began their strike Friday after classes ended, giving officials the weekend for last-ditch bargaining. Street left no doubt that if teachers stayed out today he would ask Gov. Thomas J. Ridge to use his new powers to allow a state takeover of the troubled system.