Here’s how teachers’ strikes usually play out. Since teachers are more sympathetic than the politicians and bureaucrats they are bargaining against, the public and parents start off siding with teachers.

However, as the strike or lockout goes on (and on) and parents have to make alternate child care arrangements (or stay home from work to look after kids who should be in school), and as parents develop the sense that the work stoppage is harming their children’s education, pressure mounts on both sides to get the dispute settled.

Mediation, arbitration, a joust between a champion selected by the government versus one chosen from among the teachers’ ranks. After about two weeks, parents just want the damned thing settled.

And they don’t care who gives in to whom.

That’s usually when the

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