Teacher Contract Disputes in Several Urban Districts Heat Up

By Joanna Richardson

More than a month into the new school year, several urban school districts are still locked in contract disputes over teachers' pay and benefits.

While there appeared to be no immediate threat of a walkout in those school systems, a dozen affiliates of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers were on strike last week in small districts in Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, according to the N.E.A. (See Education Week, Sept. 22, 1993.)

The largest teachers' strike, in the 24,000-student Youngstown, Ohio, schools, was settled when the union accepted the district's...