Showdown in Utah

In one corner are the schoolteachers of Utah, whose leaders are demanding more money--or else. In the other is the Governor of Utah, dead set against giving another cent--particularly when told or else. Both sides are fully committed; other states are intently watching; the upshot will profoundly help or hurt the National Education Association, professional organization of U.S. teachers. And the tide of battle seems to be running for the Governor.

The threat is posed by the 1,700-member Utah Education Association, which claims 98% of that state's public schoolteachers. In 1961 the U.E.A. launched a lobby called Cooperating Agencies for Public Schools to study Utah's needs. The lobby represented all segments of public education, including parents, school boards and the state department of education. But what it proposed for the 1963 legislature was a U.E.A.-tailored demand that Utah spend an additional $24.5 million as a "minimum" effort to improve education. To Republican Governor George Dewey Clyde, the idea was "totally unrealistic" To meet the demand, he contended, "we would have to double the state income tax, or add nearly 2% to the sales tax, or substantially boost the property tax."

No Contracts. Himself a former educator, and onetime dean of engineering at Utah State University, Clyde won election in 1956 (he is in his second term) partly as a friend of education as compared with his penny-pinching predecessor, J. Bracken Lee. Under Clyde, teachers' salaries have risen an average $1,067, to $5,205. But he rejected the Cooperating Agencies' plan, recommended a 1963 boost of $9,500,000 for education. The legislature went on to pass a record boost of $11.5 million, permitting average salary hikes of $700 per teacher.

Unwilling to settle for that, U.E.A. overwhelmingly voted not to sign contracts to teach next fall unless Clyde calls the legislature back to reconsider the appropriation. U.E.A. then called on its parent, the 858,000-member National Education Association, to persuade all U.S. teachers to boycott Utah. N.E.A. promised "strong support."

Falling Back. The irony is that Utah is not a school-poor state. It leads the U.S. in number of school years completed by adults (12.2), has the lowest rate of draft registrants failing the service aptitude test (4.7%), and devotes more of the public dollar to public education (48.6%) than any other state. Nonetheless, its teachers get somewhat less pay than the national average; its schools need more teachers, guidance counselors and modern teaching aids.

In effect, U.E.A. has painted itself into a corner. The Cooperating Agencies have lost the support of school boards and the state education department. The normally silent but influential Mormon church has denounced U.E.A.'s tactics. Moreover, by last week many teachers (90% in some school districts) had sent "letters of intent" to teach next fall. This does not mean that all Utah schools will open on schedule. But as Governor Clyde puts it, "There is only one way this dispute can end. The teachers must go back."

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