If it is successful, Pennsylvania won’t be the first and they probably won’t be the last state to ban teachers from staging a strike. Yet, if state lawmakers do finally manage to push legislation through, the Keystone state will be the most significant of the 37 other states that prohibit job walkouts.

Just since 2000, Pennsylvania hosted 60 percent of the 137 teacher strikes that occurred nationally, earning them the dubious distinction of the teacher strike capital of the country. Something obviously is not working there and a better solution must be found.

Yet, I’m torn and not sure if the answer is simply to forbid teachers from striking. Yes, the approach seems to have worked in many of the other states with similar laws. Florida’s stringent policy, which could see an employee fired and a union fined up to $20,000 for staging a strike, has been so effective that only one teacher strike occurred between 1975 and 1987.

On the other hand, California, our largest and most populous state, doesn’t put the kibosh on teacher strikes and has only seen three such walkouts since 2000.

While it’s true that teachers aren’t the only labor group who have been restricted from striking, it seems like such a drastic and strong-armed tactic to employ when collaboration and consensus would be better suited to the situation.

One thing is for sure: No one, even teachers, wants to willingly halt the delivery of education.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor