WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Should school districts close school so teachers can protest? E-mail to letters@enquirer.com; mail to Editorial Page, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

The Boone County School Board voted Tuesday night to close that district's schools; Covington did so earlier, and Kenton County and Erlanger reportedly are considering such actions. Parents in these districts should be staging their own protests against the school officials.

We have said in previous editorials that the state should rethink cutting these benefits. We also have said that a strike by the teachers is the wrong way to protest the issue because it only punishes the students and their families - the very people the teachers need as allies. But the actions of these school districts in canceling classes to accommodate a work stoppage defy all understanding. Imagine any other business shutting the doors on customers so employees can have time off to protest. If school district officials sympathize with the teachers, they should lobby the governor and the General Assembly rather than become complicit in cheating children out of a day's education.

To control costs, Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced a few weeks ago that all Kentucky state workers, including 98,000 school employees, would be hit with an average 7 percent increase in monthly insurance premiums next year. Most would also pay higher deductibles and co-pays.

In protest, the Kentucky Education Association called for a statewide walkout of teachers this coming Monday. The districts that canceled Monday classes obviously did so to avoid having to confront their teachers. But what kind of a lesson is that for the students? A far better solution would be to encourage teachers to follow the example set by their colleagues in Walton-Verona. There, teachers decided not to walk out en masse, but to send a delegation to a teacher rally Monday.

The Kentucky General Assembly, which was unwilling to compromise on a state budget this year, bears much of the responsibility for this mess. Fletcher has been running the government on a temporary spending plan, but a recent court decision has limited him to spending only as much as previously authorized by the legislature.

Fletcher has called the legislature back for an emergency session, on Oct. 5, to deal with compensation, health insurance and retirement benefits for the teachers. Some compromise is needed. Kentucky can ill afford to lose good teachers and prospective teachers to neighboring states, which generally offer higher pay and better benefits.

But the teachers owe it to their students to stay in the schools while the legislators work it out. The districts owe it to the taxpayers to insist that the teachers show up for work.