Comments

1
+1 Couldn't agree more.
2
Agreed.

Which part of fully fund Education, Teachers, and Recess don't they get?

We already overwhelmingly passed smaller class sizes, and our State Constitution is very very clear what the Paramount Duty is.
3
Very nice. I think the District is really miscalculating if they think that parents aren't going to stand with the teachers, no matter the inconvenience of school starting later.
4
Seattle has to impose a 5% income tax on all residents of Seattle, no exceptions, no deductions. All of those revenues are to be dedicated to primary through secondary education. That combined with what they already have in revenues ought to provide enough to please everyone; good wages, good curriculum, good books, and good buildings and programs.
5
Rich white folks who aren't worried about being inconvenienced by a strike...very compelling.

When airline pilots go on strike, I can choose to drive or take the train. When the public school teachers strike, I'm out of luck because their union has stifled any options for parents with kids in public school to choose. Strikes by public sector employees are just ludicrous.
6
Rich white folks don't send their children to public schools.
7
Those are nice, good schools being represented here. And Bertha, you are wrong. Lots of progressive, rich, white parents send their kids to these public schools. Not others perhaps. But these ones, you got to have dough.
8
Rich, white, and we send our kids to public school. Would never consider doing otherwise. And we do a lot for our 3 schools, and for the district in general (not just our kids/our schools). I know a lot of people who do the same. So there.
9
Okay then, so here. But my comment @4 still stands, I do support education and the rich white parents should then be in accord with an income tax for education. It is really the only way. I have read many comments in other section of the SLOG that refer to various foreign countries, some 3rd world, that have superior education systems to ours. It's very true but those schools are liberally funded through taxation.
10
@5:

That's pretty much the point, as well as the ultimate goal of organizing: it's almost impossible to break a strike when union workers represent such a high density of the available labor pool, and there are only a comparatively small number of scabs for management to try to entice across a picket line.
11
@10, that's the point when you have a private company that feels a work slowdown or stoppage in its profits, not parents and kids that have no other choice. Larry Nyland will still collect a paycheck no matter what these teachers do. Let's go all in and lets cops and firefighters strike, too, right?
12
Given how all over the place Seattle parents are with their interests, I've never seen such a unified front. This is really looking like a huge miscalculation for the school administration and board.
13
It's united for now, but realistically not sure how long working parents can support a strike if this gets protracted. There's real hardship for certain zip codes with high number of poor students. Hope the strident talks are just posturing, but given social media proclivity for rapid fire, shoot first-ask questions later, this can get ugly pretty fast.
14
Just give the teachers theirs raises and get on with the school year. I think an immediate 10% straight across the board pay increase would be a sign of good faith so that the teachers could start the school year. From that point negotiations for the rest of the contract could be hammered out and then everyone will be happy.
15
@5 and @11: If there's no possibility of a strike, what's the motivation for management to sit down at the bargaining table? The whole premise of organizing is to give workers leverage, and while I think most people agree a strike is the last resort, it's got to be a viable last resort, or they ultimately have no credible leverage.
I almost feel like it's *most* important for people in jobs like teaching to have the option to strike, as it seems to be the only way to counter the narrative that they'll always be there, and work for whatever management cares to pay them, because "it's for the kids." Of course that's part of it, but it's also a job, and as I understand it they haven't had a raise (even a modest cost of living bump) in over half a decade.
Maybe people need to live through what they would do without teachers in order to realize what teachers are actually worth.

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