Today's Boston Globe carried news that the Boston Teachers Union is planning a one day strike for next Tuesday, March 23, because of a lack of progress in contract negotiations. According to the story, the teachers are demanding a reduced class sizes, a reduction in required training, and a 9.75% raise over three years. The Boston Public Schools are supposed to be offering a 7% raise over three years with no changes in class size or mandatory training time (which is 18 hours per years). Boston is not alone. Teachers in the town of Billerica and the Greater Lowell Vocational High School are without contracts and Lowell teachers are about to start negotiations since their current contract ends this summer. It's a tough situation: the state is still so short of money that many communities will only receive the same amount of state aid this year as they did last year. Yet according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, between now and 2012, teaching, computers and health care are the occupations that will require the most new employees. That means that competition for new teachers will be fierce. To attract the best new teachers, a system like Lowell must continue to pay a competitive salary.