The Wage War in the Schoolhouse
A fiery public disagreement erupts in the press over whether teachers are overpaid or simply under-appreciated laborers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Aberdeen Herald champions the reduction of school teachers' wages, and Editor Girton writes about the matter as though he was mad at something or someone. The only difference between the views of this paper and those of the Herald seems to be that we hold that the laboring man should be the last to feel the effects of the pruning knife, especially where he is not overpaid as is the case of teachers, while the Herald manifests its interest in the same class by demanding a reduction in their wages. — Vidette.
No, Brother Divilbiss, we are not angry with anyone in particular, but we are angry at the practice of counties and cities paying any individual more for services than the individual can earn by working for some private parties or firms. We are angry that the laboring man should be used as a cloak to cover up such practices, and we are sorry to see the Vidette lending itself to the 'whipping-in' process. We are more angry because there are districts in this county where, in order that young ladies and gentlemen, some of them barely out of their teens, may be paid $50 or $60 per month, the children of the laboring men must be content with but three or four months' school during the year. Incidentally, it may be remarked that these young ladies and gentlemen do not class themselves as laboring men but professional, and further that in ninety per cent of cases the school room is used as a stepping stone to other fields, among which may be mentioned, the law, and matrimony.
“We are angry that the laboring man should be used as a cloak to cover up such practices.”
Debates over public sector wages versus the fiscal realities of rural school districts remain a central tension in Washington state politics. The specific argument—that paying teachers a living wage drains resources from the rural poor—mirrors the ongoing struggle between state-level funding mandates and local district equity.
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