STUDENTS COME FIRST

In Cairo, public school students got out a week early for the Thanksgiving break. The extra days were courtesy of striking teachers, who have rejected a 4 percent pay increase and continue to ask for a 7 percent raise.

The losers, of course, are the students whose learning has been disrupted. The teachers say that in addition to the bigger pay increase they want respect. Besides, they say, they aren't asking for the moon, even though they received a 5 percent increase just a year ago. The average compensation package, including benefits, for Cairo's high school teachers is $32,000. But what about the students?

Too much of education already has lost sight of the would-be benefactors of the nation's public education system. Schools have been turned into laboratories for social engineering, and far too often schools are the target of government programs designed to deal with issues as diverse as civil rights, sex education and nutrition standards. And in Cairo students are kept from their classrooms because of labor negotiations. resulting in a failure to provide an education.

The president of the Cairo Association of Teachers says the strike isn't "a money thing." Indeed, the difference between the district's salary offer and what the teachers are seeking is less than $1,000 a year. But the district is experiencing financial difficulties: There is virtually no more stretch in the debt limit, and severe cuts in programs such as the yearbook and cheerleading already have been made.

Although many students might like the strike as an excuse to stay home from school, they are being denied opportunities to learn while teachers and administrators haggle. There is no reason negotiations can't continue while school is in session. The teachers would be doing school-age children in Cairo a favor by returning to their classrooms and doing their negotiating after school. It would be a good extracurricular activity for them.