Seattle Teachers on Strike
September 9, 2015 6:02 PM Subscribe
Following a unanimous vote, Seattle teachers are on strike. Among their demands are guaranteed recess time for schoolchildren, caseload caps for counselors, taskforces devoted to ending racial bias in disciplinary measures, increased access to special education, and a pay raise for the first time in six years.
Teachers previously held a Recess and Equity rally after a study found that 11 Seattle elementary schools, primarily those in low-income neighborhoods, offer 20 minutes of recess per day or less.
The demand for race and equity teams in every school comes after a study found that during the Seattle Public Schools 2006-2007 school year, black students were suspended at nearly twice the rate of their white counterparts.
These negotiations and subsequent strike are held in the context of the 2012 Washington Supreme Court ruling that found the state's current funding of education unconstitutional. In light of that finding, Seattle history teacher Jesse Hagopian attempted to place a citizen's arrest on the state Legislature, and was himself arrested. Hagopian recently gave an interview about the strike.
As of this August, the state is being fined $100,000 per day for failing to fund public education. Last May, teachers in 65 districts across Washington state held rolling walkouts to draw attention to this issue.
Today, the school board authorized the superintendent to pursue legal action against the union. Three of the nine Seattle City Council members issued a letter opposing legal action against the teacher's union.
Teachers previously held a Recess and Equity rally after a study found that 11 Seattle elementary schools, primarily those in low-income neighborhoods, offer 20 minutes of recess per day or less.
The demand for race and equity teams in every school comes after a study found that during the Seattle Public Schools 2006-2007 school year, black students were suspended at nearly twice the rate of their white counterparts.
These negotiations and subsequent strike are held in the context of the 2012 Washington Supreme Court ruling that found the state's current funding of education unconstitutional. In light of that finding, Seattle history teacher Jesse Hagopian attempted to place a citizen's arrest on the state Legislature, and was himself arrested. Hagopian recently gave an interview about the strike.
As of this August, the state is being fined $100,000 per day for failing to fund public education. Last May, teachers in 65 districts across Washington state held rolling walkouts to draw attention to this issue.
Today, the school board authorized the superintendent to pursue legal action against the union. Three of the nine Seattle City Council members issued a letter opposing legal action against the teacher's union.
Hell yes - I hope that I live long enough to see American workers stand up like this en masse and get back onto the front lines of the class war. The fact that they're also attacking the Common Core, high-stakes-for-profit testing, and ghouls-in-Democratic-clothing like Tim Sheldon only make this more inspiring.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:20 PM on September 9, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by ryanshepard at 6:20 PM on September 9, 2015 [12 favorites]
We're affected by this, which is placing some strain on us, but all I can say is good on the teachers, they are doing the right thing.
posted by Artw at 6:20 PM on September 9, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:20 PM on September 9, 2015 [8 favorites]
The Republican Party hates teachers, and wages war on them all the time. These sad conditions are a result.
Smart people are a problem for the GOP.
posted by Repack Rider at 6:22 PM on September 9, 2015 [12 favorites]
Smart people are a problem for the GOP.
posted by Repack Rider at 6:22 PM on September 9, 2015 [12 favorites]
The interesting thing has been that, so far, a vast majority of the parents are siding with the teachers. Keep in mind that we're talking about people who argue over computers in schools and GMO and math books all the live long day.
I mean, hell, I think Jesse Hagopian is a grandstanding sort whom you probably don't want to between a camera and him. And yet, we're on the same side on this issue.
It looks like this strike could run deep into October. It will not be fun, regardless. The legislature could have fixed this during one of their multiple special sessions, but they sat on their hands. An 8 week strike would profoundly shift the politics of this state. And I think that's what some people want. After all, politics in Washington drives on crisis, not on need.
posted by dw at 6:30 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I mean, hell, I think Jesse Hagopian is a grandstanding sort whom you probably don't want to between a camera and him. And yet, we're on the same side on this issue.
It looks like this strike could run deep into October. It will not be fun, regardless. The legislature could have fixed this during one of their multiple special sessions, but they sat on their hands. An 8 week strike would profoundly shift the politics of this state. And I think that's what some people want. After all, politics in Washington drives on crisis, not on need.
posted by dw at 6:30 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
Washington State has a lot of Red Areas which bitterly resent the thought of any tax dollars being sucked out of the blue bits of the state that don't directly subsidise them, which may be intersecting with awful urban libertarian types in this case.
posted by Artw at 6:33 PM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:33 PM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
The postulated awful urban libertarian bloc doesn't seem to get out the vote, on city council at least. Some past ballot initiatives have a whiff of that coalition I guess. I suppose they could have a lock on the school board.
posted by silby at 6:39 PM on September 9, 2015
posted by silby at 6:39 PM on September 9, 2015
The Republican Party hates teachers, and wages war on them all the time. These sad conditions are a result.
Smart people are a problem for the GOP.
Yeah, Seattle should try electing Democrats.
posted by Drinky Die at 6:43 PM on September 9, 2015 [11 favorites]
Smart people are a problem for the GOP.
Yeah, Seattle should try electing Democrats.
posted by Drinky Die at 6:43 PM on September 9, 2015 [11 favorites]
Disappointingly, but not unsurprisingly, the NY Times article linked above the fold doesn't mention caseload caps, recess, special education, or racial bias in disciplinary measures, choosing instead to gloss over the union's demands as "issues of pay and staffing".
posted by galaxy rise at 6:44 PM on September 9, 2015 [13 favorites]
posted by galaxy rise at 6:44 PM on September 9, 2015 [13 favorites]
So what are the wages for a full time teacher in Seattle, say with ten years experience? And why have they not had a pay rise in six years?
posted by wilful at 6:51 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by wilful at 6:51 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]
Send in an emergency manager.
posted by clavdivs at 6:51 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 6:51 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Wildly varying teacher salaries part of state budget debate - has some charts.
posted by Artw at 6:57 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:57 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Washington State has a lot of Red Areas which bitterly resent the thought of any tax dollars being sucked out of the blue bits of the state that don't directly subsidise them
Also a lot of rich people who send their kids to private school and see no reason to increase their own taxes to educate the poors. Seattle has one of the highest private school enrollment rates in the US, which helps produce this incredibly toxic school culture.
posted by miyabo at 7:03 PM on September 9, 2015 [15 favorites]
Also a lot of rich people who send their kids to private school and see no reason to increase their own taxes to educate the poors. Seattle has one of the highest private school enrollment rates in the US, which helps produce this incredibly toxic school culture.
posted by miyabo at 7:03 PM on September 9, 2015 [15 favorites]
Hey Parents, Here's What You Need to Know About the Teachers' Strike (Hint: It’s the Legislature’s Fault) by Jen Graves:
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:15 PM on September 9, 2015 [27 favorites]
I told my daughter this morning that I believed she would not be going to school tomorrow, and that the teachers would be out on strike. She wants to go to school. She texted me in reply, simply, "What do you think?"So there you go.
I don't know about you, but when a teenager asks your opinion, it is a rare occasion, and if that teenager is your child, it is just about the most precious occasion in your small life.
I decided that my obligation today was to offer her a researched opinion, so I spent the day reading up.
My knowledge up to then was probably similar to most other news-reading parents. In 2012, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that the state's system for funding education is broken to the point of being unconstitutional, meaning that kids aren't getting even a "basic education" in this state.
Our educational system is considered literally criminal.
And by 2014, the state Legislature showed no progress toward fixing it. So the court held the state in contempt, warning that fines would begin to accrue in 2015.
To try to compel the Legislature to get moving, teachers in 65 districts—that's 65 districts—across Washington State held a one-day strike this May.
Nothing happened.
Like clockwork, the Legislature made no progress and the court intervened. In August, the court began fining the state $100,000 per day until the Legislature presents plans for reform.
Sounds dramatic, right?
"Compared with other solutions that have been floated, $100,000 a day is actually somewhat conservative," Slate reported. "When, in 1976, New Jersey was in a similar situation, the Supreme Court shut down the schools for eight days. The fruits of that conflict remain with New Jerseyites to this day, for the need to fund schools more fairly is what led New Jersey in 1976 to adopt a state income tax for the first time."
Washington does not have a state income tax. Rather, Washington has one of the most regressive and haphazard tax systems in the United States. If this system were your family's source of funding for paying your bills, you would be homeless, starving, uneducated, and physically and mentally ill. From 2009 to 2012, all income growth in Washington state accrued to the top 1 percent, according to this year's report from the national Economic Policy Institute. But there's more to the great achievements of Washington's 1 percent! Washington's 1 percent received 59.1 percent of all income growth from 1979 to 2007.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:15 PM on September 9, 2015 [27 favorites]
Among their demands are guaranteed recess time for schoolchildren, caseload caps for counselors, taskforces devoted to ending racial bias in disciplinary measures, increased access to special education, and a pay raise for the first time in six years.
I despair that a strike can even be successful in the modern day, especially a public employee strike, but I'd love to be proven wrong. Tying demands to student conditions is a pretty smart move, and maybe it'll actually work or gain some sort of traction. I would like to see standardized testing or black-box-value-added-voodoo from being tied to an educator's livelihood, but I guess that's probably too easy to spin into "fatcat teachers" nonsense. Any victory would be good for morale.
Generally speaking, smaller class sizes to the list in all of these things, but that's really outside the realm of possibility: such a program would create state jobs that can't be paid for instead of protecting state jobs that won't be paid for. Hiring from a pool of nonexistent applicants, for that matter, since the only job I've worked that had worse churn was cell phone customer service representative.
posted by absalom at 7:20 PM on September 9, 2015
I despair that a strike can even be successful in the modern day, especially a public employee strike, but I'd love to be proven wrong. Tying demands to student conditions is a pretty smart move, and maybe it'll actually work or gain some sort of traction. I would like to see standardized testing or black-box-value-added-voodoo from being tied to an educator's livelihood, but I guess that's probably too easy to spin into "fatcat teachers" nonsense. Any victory would be good for morale.
Generally speaking, smaller class sizes to the list in all of these things, but that's really outside the realm of possibility: such a program would create state jobs that can't be paid for instead of protecting state jobs that won't be paid for. Hiring from a pool of nonexistent applicants, for that matter, since the only job I've worked that had worse churn was cell phone customer service representative.
posted by absalom at 7:20 PM on September 9, 2015
I'm sure all the techies and VC types in Seattle will get behind boot-strapping local education with increased funding and resources.
lol
posted by Avenger at 7:27 PM on September 9, 2015 [10 favorites]
lol
posted by Avenger at 7:27 PM on September 9, 2015 [10 favorites]
No, I just want the teachers to win.
posted by Artw at 7:33 PM on September 9, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Artw at 7:33 PM on September 9, 2015 [8 favorites]
I mean, I'm sure there are a ton of shitbag libertarians working in tech, I've certainly met enough, but in general everyone on my level seems pretty supportive of education. We are not San Francisco.
I cannot speak for VC and CEO types though, and would hold no great hopes there.
posted by Artw at 7:37 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I cannot speak for VC and CEO types though, and would hold no great hopes there.
posted by Artw at 7:37 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
But are they willing to pay higher taxes to fund it?
posted by Mitheral at 7:40 PM on September 9, 2015
posted by Mitheral at 7:40 PM on September 9, 2015
Generally, I'd say.
posted by Artw at 7:42 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Artw at 7:42 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]
I don't know the feasibility in this specific situation, but when I was in elementary school and the teachers went on strike, my parents made me attend school every day because it puts serious pressure on the Administrative school staff. If all the kids stay home, the school doesn't have to figure out what to do with them when there are no teachers.
posted by atomicstone at 8:34 PM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by atomicstone at 8:34 PM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]
@atomicstone I've been told that the school buildings aren't open, but I heard a rumor that parents are planning a "play-in" at district headquarters, letting their kids run amok in the halls.
posted by femmegrrr at 9:01 PM on September 9, 2015 [13 favorites]
posted by femmegrrr at 9:01 PM on September 9, 2015 [13 favorites]
I've taught as a sub in Seattle (and some neighboring districts) for about ten years now. I walked the picket lines today at my most frequent work site, which is a high school on the north end. Some thoughts I want to offer (sorry if I repeat anything from the FPP, I'm very tired):
* Media stories are focusing on the pay issue for the sake of quick soundbites. If you talk to teachers, yes, pay is important, but these equity issues are HUGE to us. We care a lot about stopping this fixation on standardized testing. Tying evaluations to test scores is unfair (and doesn't apply evenly at all). And the caseloads given to specialists--psychologists, speech therapists, nurses--are just plain frightening. We need to HIRE MORE of these people, and we can't do it with the way things are.
* Yes, ultimately the state legislature is underfunding schools, but the district went out of its way to carve out some blame for itself here. The union's bargaining team has been trying to make things happen all summer. Hell, since before the summer. The district's team has been a mess all along. They are uncoordinated and plain disrespectful. After the union pushed repeatedly for a day to focus on special education, the district agreed to a day...and then their special education people couldn't be bothered to show up. Stuff like that happened repeatedly through this process.
* The district's negotiators waited until the LAST DAY of the bargaining session (about three weeks ago) to drop this bomb about adding 30 minutes of instructional time to the day without any pay increase to account for it. They're saying it doesn't add time to the actual scheduled day, but that's because they're playing a shell game with teacher prep time--which still adds up to more time teachers will spend working. Waiting until the last day showed some serious bad faith. Also, they still haven't clearly articulated what this extra 30 minutes is supposed to look like, and it'll probably come down to ANOTHER block of time we have to prep for, meaning it's an even bigger burden on our time than it sounds at first glance. MANY teachers would be happy to have more time with students, but not offering to pay for it is...yeah, is anyone in the world really okay with having a half hour added onto their work day with no commensurate raise in pay?
They're really not budging on that, either. Honestly, at this point it's just kind of weirdly stubborn.
* The recess issue is huge. Kids on the south end of the city (mostly minorities) were the ones who got the 15-20 minute raw deal. Kids on the north end (overwhelmingly white) could count on 45 minutes a day. There was a LOT of coded racism in the talk about why this came about--saying south end schools had too many fights, that they needed more class time to boost test scores, etc. The union is having none of it. We've gotten the district to guarantee 30 minutes in their last few offerings, and that's gonna stick. 30 minutes still sucks, mind you, but it's a marked improvement over the status quo.
* Yeah, Hagopian is...I give him a lot of credit for leading the effort to get rid of MAP testing a couple years back (a really lame boondoggle of a computer-based test), but yeah, that dude is one grandstanding sort of guy. Don't get between him and a mic or a camera.
* I'm not a huge fan of the union's president. However, the union's bargaining team is an interdisciplinary group of 38 teachers from across the city, some of whom I know to be people of great integrity, and they're all on the same page. That erases any doubts I have about their position.
* The Seattle Times is an awful, partisan rag when it comes to education. Other issues, too, but wow are they consistently awful about public education. Like Fox News awful. Read everything therein with skepticism, please. The BEST reporting, consistently, is from the Stranger and its Slog articles as shown in this post. (Thanks for the good roundup, femegrr!)
* At the moment, apart from the usual internet bitching and a few understandably stressed-out parents, the public really seems to be on our side. People honked and waved at us all day on that picket line. It was wonderful.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:14 PM on September 9, 2015 [50 favorites]
* Media stories are focusing on the pay issue for the sake of quick soundbites. If you talk to teachers, yes, pay is important, but these equity issues are HUGE to us. We care a lot about stopping this fixation on standardized testing. Tying evaluations to test scores is unfair (and doesn't apply evenly at all). And the caseloads given to specialists--psychologists, speech therapists, nurses--are just plain frightening. We need to HIRE MORE of these people, and we can't do it with the way things are.
* Yes, ultimately the state legislature is underfunding schools, but the district went out of its way to carve out some blame for itself here. The union's bargaining team has been trying to make things happen all summer. Hell, since before the summer. The district's team has been a mess all along. They are uncoordinated and plain disrespectful. After the union pushed repeatedly for a day to focus on special education, the district agreed to a day...and then their special education people couldn't be bothered to show up. Stuff like that happened repeatedly through this process.
* The district's negotiators waited until the LAST DAY of the bargaining session (about three weeks ago) to drop this bomb about adding 30 minutes of instructional time to the day without any pay increase to account for it. They're saying it doesn't add time to the actual scheduled day, but that's because they're playing a shell game with teacher prep time--which still adds up to more time teachers will spend working. Waiting until the last day showed some serious bad faith. Also, they still haven't clearly articulated what this extra 30 minutes is supposed to look like, and it'll probably come down to ANOTHER block of time we have to prep for, meaning it's an even bigger burden on our time than it sounds at first glance. MANY teachers would be happy to have more time with students, but not offering to pay for it is...yeah, is anyone in the world really okay with having a half hour added onto their work day with no commensurate raise in pay?
They're really not budging on that, either. Honestly, at this point it's just kind of weirdly stubborn.
* The recess issue is huge. Kids on the south end of the city (mostly minorities) were the ones who got the 15-20 minute raw deal. Kids on the north end (overwhelmingly white) could count on 45 minutes a day. There was a LOT of coded racism in the talk about why this came about--saying south end schools had too many fights, that they needed more class time to boost test scores, etc. The union is having none of it. We've gotten the district to guarantee 30 minutes in their last few offerings, and that's gonna stick. 30 minutes still sucks, mind you, but it's a marked improvement over the status quo.
* Yeah, Hagopian is...I give him a lot of credit for leading the effort to get rid of MAP testing a couple years back (a really lame boondoggle of a computer-based test), but yeah, that dude is one grandstanding sort of guy. Don't get between him and a mic or a camera.
* I'm not a huge fan of the union's president. However, the union's bargaining team is an interdisciplinary group of 38 teachers from across the city, some of whom I know to be people of great integrity, and they're all on the same page. That erases any doubts I have about their position.
* The Seattle Times is an awful, partisan rag when it comes to education. Other issues, too, but wow are they consistently awful about public education. Like Fox News awful. Read everything therein with skepticism, please. The BEST reporting, consistently, is from the Stranger and its Slog articles as shown in this post. (Thanks for the good roundup, femegrr!)
* At the moment, apart from the usual internet bitching and a few understandably stressed-out parents, the public really seems to be on our side. People honked and waved at us all day on that picket line. It was wonderful.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:14 PM on September 9, 2015 [50 favorites]
So what are the wages for a full time teacher in Seattle, say with ten years experience? And why have they not had a pay rise in six years?
Current pay chart for Certificated Staff.
TRI is basically a supplement to your base pay to account for all the after-school stuff teachers routinely do: grading, lesson planning, supporting school activities, etc. At least, that's how it was explained to me the one time I received it in a semester-length subbing position...when the district tried to screw me out of it & the union had to go to bat for me to recover it.
If you start as a full time teacher with a BA (probably that 2nd step to account for your certificate training), you're at $34,188 + $10,562 for TRI, so $44,750. If you start with an MA, you're looking at $53,839.
At ten years? BA = $59,615, MA = $66,165. You really have to play around on the chart to account for however much extra training you have past your BA in terms of both college credits and clock hours, because you can see how much that varies. Also, it's important to note that the district really loves to hire for less than a full FTE. They constantly post jobs for .8 all the way down to .4, and I'm not sure how anyone can live on that stuff.
By the way: a substitute who has worked 90 days in the district gets paid $187 per day (>90 days are lower steps). That means if you somehow manage to work all 180 days of the school year, the most you'll make is $33,660. No benefits, no sick days, none of the TRI stuff. You might make more if you're lucky enough to get a long-term spot, but those aren't frequent at all. $33,660 is the most you can hope for, and it's pretty much impossible to actually work all 180 days. There just isn't work available every day of the year.
I used to sub in multiple districts to make sure I could work every day. All the neighbors pay less.
In the last couple years, I've made considerably more money as an author than I make as a sub. I keep active because the first rule of being a writer is Don't Quit Your Day Job (thank you, jscalzi), but even so, subbing is secondary income for me now. Still, that really hits home what a crummy way it is to make a living: you have to be a fully certificated teacher to be a sub, but you are not remotely treated or paid like one.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:30 PM on September 9, 2015 [13 favorites]
Current pay chart for Certificated Staff.
TRI is basically a supplement to your base pay to account for all the after-school stuff teachers routinely do: grading, lesson planning, supporting school activities, etc. At least, that's how it was explained to me the one time I received it in a semester-length subbing position...when the district tried to screw me out of it & the union had to go to bat for me to recover it.
If you start as a full time teacher with a BA (probably that 2nd step to account for your certificate training), you're at $34,188 + $10,562 for TRI, so $44,750. If you start with an MA, you're looking at $53,839.
At ten years? BA = $59,615, MA = $66,165. You really have to play around on the chart to account for however much extra training you have past your BA in terms of both college credits and clock hours, because you can see how much that varies. Also, it's important to note that the district really loves to hire for less than a full FTE. They constantly post jobs for .8 all the way down to .4, and I'm not sure how anyone can live on that stuff.
By the way: a substitute who has worked 90 days in the district gets paid $187 per day (>90 days are lower steps). That means if you somehow manage to work all 180 days of the school year, the most you'll make is $33,660. No benefits, no sick days, none of the TRI stuff. You might make more if you're lucky enough to get a long-term spot, but those aren't frequent at all. $33,660 is the most you can hope for, and it's pretty much impossible to actually work all 180 days. There just isn't work available every day of the year.
I used to sub in multiple districts to make sure I could work every day. All the neighbors pay less.
In the last couple years, I've made considerably more money as an author than I make as a sub. I keep active because the first rule of being a writer is Don't Quit Your Day Job (thank you, jscalzi), but even so, subbing is secondary income for me now. Still, that really hits home what a crummy way it is to make a living: you have to be a fully certificated teacher to be a sub, but you are not remotely treated or paid like one.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:30 PM on September 9, 2015 [13 favorites]
Oh. One more thing about pay: classified staff get screwed horribly. The office manager for one elementary school spoke up at the strike vote meeting and said that she tracked her "overtime" hours last year and found that she'd "donated" about $14,000 in overtime. Individual buildings are given a limited budget for overtime pay, but it's vastly short of what's fair and necessary.
The thing is, those staffers? They can't just leave work undone. It's not like a regular job where stuff can get left until tomorrow and the sky doesn't fall. They're doing stuff that directly impacts students, all day every day. They're not gonna leave things undone, and so they get taken advantage of on a daily basis.
And currently, a classified substitute will never get long-term pay like I would if I took over a regular job. They stay at the same $127 per day regardless of how much of the full job they take over.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:34 PM on September 9, 2015 [15 favorites]
The thing is, those staffers? They can't just leave work undone. It's not like a regular job where stuff can get left until tomorrow and the sky doesn't fall. They're doing stuff that directly impacts students, all day every day. They're not gonna leave things undone, and so they get taken advantage of on a daily basis.
And currently, a classified substitute will never get long-term pay like I would if I took over a regular job. They stay at the same $127 per day regardless of how much of the full job they take over.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:34 PM on September 9, 2015 [15 favorites]
I took my daughter to her school to walk the picket line in support of her teachers. The kids made signs like "More recess, less testing", "I love my teachers", and "Fair contract now!" (Not all pictured.) Some of us are posting on Twitter under #Picketpix and SEA is posting in an album on their Facebook page. There were tons of people honking, waving, and giving thumbs up. There was a lot of support from nearly everyone going by.
I did a little research about the salary issue that Seattle Times is so focused on and found that if you compare cost of living a Yakima teacher has $14,000 more buying power than a Seattle teacher and an Edmonds teacher has $4,000 more, despite making less money.
I'm also a little disturbed to see the state hasn't been paying up for the entire time my daughter has been in school. No wonder we've had to try to fund so many things from PTSA money. We don't have enough at her school for a language teacher. The nurse is there one day a week. (Weirdly, this still looks better to me than when I was in SPS and had one class where I didn't get a textbook because there weren't enough, and another class that only the kids who got there early got a seat. Not even kidding about my high school.)
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:45 PM on September 9, 2015 [9 favorites]
I did a little research about the salary issue that Seattle Times is so focused on and found that if you compare cost of living a Yakima teacher has $14,000 more buying power than a Seattle teacher and an Edmonds teacher has $4,000 more, despite making less money.
I'm also a little disturbed to see the state hasn't been paying up for the entire time my daughter has been in school. No wonder we've had to try to fund so many things from PTSA money. We don't have enough at her school for a language teacher. The nurse is there one day a week. (Weirdly, this still looks better to me than when I was in SPS and had one class where I didn't get a textbook because there weren't enough, and another class that only the kids who got there early got a seat. Not even kidding about my high school.)
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:45 PM on September 9, 2015 [9 favorites]
30 minutes still sucks, mind you, but it's a marked improvement over the status quo.Yeah, my daughter's elementary school in West Seattle has two 15-minute recesses, and that seems horribly short to me. Is that even enough time to pick teams for kickball and play one inning? I can't imagine what it's like in the schools with only half as much. Especially in light of last week's Washington Post article on the decline of play in pre-schoolers and the earlier one by the same author on how schools ruined recess.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:52 PM on September 9, 2015
As of this August, the state is being fined $100,000 per day for failing to fund public education.
A hundred fucking thousand dollars per day. Jesus god.
posted by rtha at 10:07 PM on September 9, 2015
A hundred fucking thousand dollars per day. Jesus god.
posted by rtha at 10:07 PM on September 9, 2015
Part of Washington's problems are sweetheart tax deals for large state employers. For example Microsoft mails billions of dollars of server licenses from a little one room office in Reno, Nevada to avoid a software royalty tax in Washington where the software is actually created. This costs the state about $100 million a year in lost tax revenues.
Then there's Boeing which got an agreement for tax breaks of about $500 million a year. Meanwhile, Boeing decided to shift some of its manufacturing to non-union South Carolina.
posted by JackFlash at 10:15 PM on September 9, 2015 [14 favorites]
Then there's Boeing which got an agreement for tax breaks of about $500 million a year. Meanwhile, Boeing decided to shift some of its manufacturing to non-union South Carolina.
posted by JackFlash at 10:15 PM on September 9, 2015 [14 favorites]
The interesting thing has been that, so far, a vast majority of the parents are siding with the teachers.
Poll again in two weeks.
I say that sardonically, but I wonder... how does public sentiment tend to go, with teacher strikes? I'd imagine that the bloom would be off the rose of even the most popular strike by the third week of scrambling for childcare.
I've got an incoming kindergartener. I support the teachers' position, and, yeah, we can wait. But if this turns into a knock-down-drag-out, I'm going to be pretty angry and bitter.
Hopefully, a lot of angry, bitter parents can be turned into a political force and aimed properly at the legislature.
posted by gurple at 10:31 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Poll again in two weeks.
I say that sardonically, but I wonder... how does public sentiment tend to go, with teacher strikes? I'd imagine that the bloom would be off the rose of even the most popular strike by the third week of scrambling for childcare.
I've got an incoming kindergartener. I support the teachers' position, and, yeah, we can wait. But if this turns into a knock-down-drag-out, I'm going to be pretty angry and bitter.
Hopefully, a lot of angry, bitter parents can be turned into a political force and aimed properly at the legislature.
posted by gurple at 10:31 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Well, that's the problem, isn't it? The right wing in this country has done an amazing job of demonizing unions. And again, the primary daily paper in this town is consistently against us. The news channels are super sloppy about their reporting. And angry parents will want someone to blame.
My memory is that the more recent strikes in the greater metro area have been successfully cast as greedy teachers wanting more money and nothing else, when those other districts were striking over more than just money, too.
I'm hopeful that the public will stick with us, but I'm not taking that for granted.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:34 PM on September 9, 2015 [9 favorites]
My memory is that the more recent strikes in the greater metro area have been successfully cast as greedy teachers wanting more money and nothing else, when those other districts were striking over more than just money, too.
I'm hopeful that the public will stick with us, but I'm not taking that for granted.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:34 PM on September 9, 2015 [9 favorites]
I understand intellectually that Seattle Times readers and KIRO viewers must exist but I've never met any. My primary news source is @jseattle on Twitter. Anyway, having no children I'm free to unequivocally endorse the SEA holding out as long as it takes.
posted by silby at 11:29 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by silby at 11:29 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]
Origins of the teacher strike have more to do with the state legislature and its historic underfunding of education than with the local politics of Seattle.The theory here is that Seattle can't afford public schools unless it taps into the greater Washington tax base? Is one of those Detroit-like "there's money in the metro area but all outside the city limits" situations?
posted by roystgnr at 4:37 AM on September 10, 2015
Disappointingly, but not unsurprisingly, the NY Times article linked above the fold doesn't mention caseload caps, recess, special education, or racial bias in disciplinary measures, choosing instead to gloss over the union's demands as "issues of pay and staffing".
Darn that liberal media!
It boggles my mind why liberals and Democrats don't complain vocally and all the time about the media's obvious biases. After all, the decades-long campaign of movement conservatism to promulgate the myth of the "liberal media" worked better than its perpetrators could have hoped.
posted by Gelatin at 6:20 AM on September 10, 2015
Darn that liberal media!
It boggles my mind why liberals and Democrats don't complain vocally and all the time about the media's obvious biases. After all, the decades-long campaign of movement conservatism to promulgate the myth of the "liberal media" worked better than its perpetrators could have hoped.
posted by Gelatin at 6:20 AM on September 10, 2015
I was under the impression Washington state schools got a large amount of funding from property taxes. The Lake Washington School District is very popular with the local high tech community for this reason. Bill Gates' mansion drives up property values and the non-black, non-Hispanic folks who can afford $500k+ for a house in Bellevue or Kirkland get great public schools.
I feel for the parents in this one. We went through teacher strikes in Vancouver recently. I started out blaming the government. As weeks passed I still thought most fault lay with the government but started to feel like the government and the union needed to get it together. I never felt ill-will for the teachers, they were victims of the union leadership at a certain point. The teachers were as unhappy as the parents (strike fund ran out). We were happy to see the teachers, happy to return to school, the classroom had a normal dynamic, and we had a good short school year. Hang in there parents.
posted by crazycanuck at 7:07 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I feel for the parents in this one. We went through teacher strikes in Vancouver recently. I started out blaming the government. As weeks passed I still thought most fault lay with the government but started to feel like the government and the union needed to get it together. I never felt ill-will for the teachers, they were victims of the union leadership at a certain point. The teachers were as unhappy as the parents (strike fund ran out). We were happy to see the teachers, happy to return to school, the classroom had a normal dynamic, and we had a good short school year. Hang in there parents.
posted by crazycanuck at 7:07 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Funding info for WA state schools
Main Components to WA K-12 Fundingposted by palomar at 7:40 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
School District revenues come from local, state & federal sources. Slices of the funding pie (approx. every school district is different):
· 70% by WA — Sources of General Fund revenue for Basic Education. These State funds mostly come from statewide sales tax and property tax revenues.
· 20% by WA localities—Most local funds come from a local property tax. A school district is authorized to levy a local property tax in the district to raise revenues that are used only in that school district. Other local funds come from such things as district rental fees, property sales, or investments. There is more to the role of Local Bond and Levy funding in school district budgets and local control.
· 10% by USA—Federal dollars pay for federal poverty and equity programs but performed by WA. Federal funds are distributed by the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies and largely come from federal income taxes.
Washington State has not adjusted their school funding approach in decades and the general attitude is that the state has severely underfunded education,educators and staff. Teachers have already been striking on the East side of the state , knowing it is against the law to do so. Seattle has 50,000 students out of school while a major school district in a very conservative part of the state has left 15,000 diverse students with no school start date.
posted by lawliet at 9:10 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by lawliet at 9:10 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
The theory here is that Seattle can't afford public schools unless it taps into the greater Washington tax base? Is one of those Detroit-like "there's money in the metro area but all outside the city limits" situations?
No, nothing like that. The problem is that for every dollar Seattle sends to Olympia, Olympia returns something like 80 cents, while sending more than a dollar to very conservative counties in eastern Washington. This all while those eastern Washington politicians go on about tax money getting sent to those liberals/socialists in Seattle.
The funding system is very, very broken, and the Legislature has shirked their responsibilities. I wish the Supreme Court had pulled a New Jersey and shut the entire system down -- $100K a day is chump change when you're talking about a $38 billion annual budget.
posted by dw at 9:43 AM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
No, nothing like that. The problem is that for every dollar Seattle sends to Olympia, Olympia returns something like 80 cents, while sending more than a dollar to very conservative counties in eastern Washington. This all while those eastern Washington politicians go on about tax money getting sent to those liberals/socialists in Seattle.
The funding system is very, very broken, and the Legislature has shirked their responsibilities. I wish the Supreme Court had pulled a New Jersey and shut the entire system down -- $100K a day is chump change when you're talking about a $38 billion annual budget.
posted by dw at 9:43 AM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
> I understand intellectually that Seattle Times readers and KIRO viewers must exist but I've never met any
Hi, Seattle Times subscriber here. Not because it's a good newspaper, but because it's the only newspaper.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:49 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Hi, Seattle Times subscriber here. Not because it's a good newspaper, but because it's the only newspaper.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:49 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I miss the P-I. Boy do I miss it. It wasn't perfect but at least there was more than one viewpoint out there in our local mainstream print media.
posted by palomar at 9:53 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by palomar at 9:53 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Passed by kids and parents protesting on behalf of teachers on the way in to work, which was gladening to see.
posted by Artw at 9:56 AM on September 10, 2015
posted by Artw at 9:56 AM on September 10, 2015
all of the people out there who are noting that there's only one newspaper in Seattle are correct, but you're all misspelling the name. it's spelled The Stranger. I don't know where you're all getting this crazy "The Seattle Times misspelling. like, normally I'm not a prescriptivist, but it's important to spell the name of Seattle's only newspaper correctly.
also good lord stop giving money to the Blethens. they are the worst people.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:02 AM on September 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
also good lord stop giving money to the Blethens. they are the worst people.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:02 AM on September 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
like if you must read the Seattle Times at least have the common decency to steal it instead of paying for it.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:05 AM on September 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:05 AM on September 10, 2015 [8 favorites]
The Stranger is going downhill fast -- the mass exodus led by Lindy, Dominic, and Jonah really stripped their talent bare. The Times, meanwhile, is honestly the best representation I've seen of classical "Lesser Seattle" -- a xenophobic, passive aggressive mess that looks liberal on the surface but disintegrates into racism/classism the moment someone comes too close. And the Blethens use that to their advantage.
The only newspaper in Seattle worth reading anymore is Real Change.
posted by dw at 11:33 AM on September 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
The only newspaper in Seattle worth reading anymore is Real Change.
posted by dw at 11:33 AM on September 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
The thing that annoyed me the most about the Seattle Times is when the teachers ran their one-day strike the Times ran this "WHY WON'T TEACHERS THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" pearl-clutching editorial. Never mind their slobbering all over charter schools (which the Supreme Court just blew out of the sky), that was petty and pointless.
But then that's the Blethens' MO. Petty and pointless. Oh, and no taxes on them, ever.
posted by dw at 11:51 AM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
But then that's the Blethens' MO. Petty and pointless. Oh, and no taxes on them, ever.
posted by dw at 11:51 AM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
Pretty sure my wife (a teacher) would be relatively happy with no pay increase for 6 years compared to what she's had. I'd ballpark her pay as about 25% lower than it was 6 years or so ago.
posted by piper28 at 12:30 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by piper28 at 12:30 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
all of the people out there who are noting that there's only one newspaper in Seattle are correct, but you're all misspelling the name. it's spelled The Stranger.
The Stranger is great, but it's not a newspaper. If I want wall-to-wall coverage of the current hot issue in town (the strike right now), or bar and restaurant reviews, or reasonable pieces on the tech boom, or a voting guide that I try to find some way to disagree with every time and usually fail... The Stranger is fantastic. If I want news, ie., information about a variety of things that are happening, I want a newspaper, and a bad newspaper like the Times is better than no newspaper.
Right now on the Seattle Times page there's an article about the Haggen bankruptcy, which is a pretty big deal. The Stranger won't post stuff like that unless they can find some way to sex it up.
posted by gurple at 1:37 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
The Stranger is great, but it's not a newspaper. If I want wall-to-wall coverage of the current hot issue in town (the strike right now), or bar and restaurant reviews, or reasonable pieces on the tech boom, or a voting guide that I try to find some way to disagree with every time and usually fail... The Stranger is fantastic. If I want news, ie., information about a variety of things that are happening, I want a newspaper, and a bad newspaper like the Times is better than no newspaper.
Right now on the Seattle Times page there's an article about the Haggen bankruptcy, which is a pretty big deal. The Stranger won't post stuff like that unless they can find some way to sex it up.
posted by gurple at 1:37 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Wow, even the NYT headline is wrong. It's been 24 years since the last SPS teachers' strike. There were at least 30 districts who walked out with them; maybe they confused the two numbers. I remember the 1991 strike, as I was a student in SPS myself then. The Stranger's piece is much better and explains a lot more. There's a few interviews with teachers on the picket lines as well. The Stranger is recommending the New Jersey solution.
I hope they keep parent support longer because the teachers are fighting for recess, less testing, smaller classes, and working on racial bias, as well as income and benefits. I'm honestly most fired about less testing, since I think we have about month's worth of it now, which shortens the amount of time you can actually teach by a lot. (Recess is one of the first things the district agreed on, and it looks like they've agreed on testing now as well. I haven't seen a bargaining update from SEA (Seattle Education Association) yet today, but they tend to post them super late in the day, after they're done bargaining and they've been working late all week & weekend.
My daughter and I joined the picket line again today for another hour or so. Tomorrow we'll go to the beach cleanup. And if schools are still closed next week, we'll spend more time picketing with the teachers. The teachers sure are fighting hard enough for our students.
posted by Margalo Epps at 1:56 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I hope they keep parent support longer because the teachers are fighting for recess, less testing, smaller classes, and working on racial bias, as well as income and benefits. I'm honestly most fired about less testing, since I think we have about month's worth of it now, which shortens the amount of time you can actually teach by a lot. (Recess is one of the first things the district agreed on, and it looks like they've agreed on testing now as well. I haven't seen a bargaining update from SEA (Seattle Education Association) yet today, but they tend to post them super late in the day, after they're done bargaining and they've been working late all week & weekend.
My daughter and I joined the picket line again today for another hour or so. Tomorrow we'll go to the beach cleanup. And if schools are still closed next week, we'll spend more time picketing with the teachers. The teachers sure are fighting hard enough for our students.
posted by Margalo Epps at 1:56 PM on September 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I get the paper delivered so my kids can read the comics and I can read the headlines while we eat breakfast. The Stranger a) isn't delivered every morning to my doorstep and b) doesn't have "Pearls Before Swine" and "Betty."
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:19 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:19 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
There's more good info right now at the West Seattle Blog about the strike. They're publishing articles each day with lots of updates as they hear from people and get more photos.
posted by Margalo Epps at 1:40 PM on September 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Margalo Epps at 1:40 PM on September 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
So, we moved to Seattle on Tuesday (hi, new neighbors!), and I've been watching news about the strike vote as we packed. My daughter is supposed to start kindergarten on Monday. I'm pretty sure that won't happen now. Any Seattle MeFites want to have a Playground Meetup next week?
posted by RakDaddy at 2:58 PM on September 11, 2015
posted by RakDaddy at 2:58 PM on September 11, 2015
Any Seattle MeFites want to have a Playground Meetup next week?
Sounds fun. I'm much more likely to go to anything in West Seattle (or White Center or Burien), but may venture out further. Want to start a IRL post? (Also, it may help to reset your location to Seattle if you want to see which mefites are closest.)
Also, if you haven't had a chance to visit your school yet, I'd recommend going down there and getting to know the teachers some. They're probably all right outside the school with picket signs and mostly unused lawn chairs. You could bring snacks or stand there with a sign for a bit if you're inclined. This way your daughter could talk to her teacher a little bit if she hasn't already had the chance. (Some schools had a welcome-back event on Tuesday, others cancelled theirs with the impending strike.) The teachers at our school have been thrilled to have kids and parents out with them and I think most schools feel that way, because most of the photos I've seen from the various pickets include a number of kids.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:31 PM on September 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
Sounds fun. I'm much more likely to go to anything in West Seattle (or White Center or Burien), but may venture out further. Want to start a IRL post? (Also, it may help to reset your location to Seattle if you want to see which mefites are closest.)
Also, if you haven't had a chance to visit your school yet, I'd recommend going down there and getting to know the teachers some. They're probably all right outside the school with picket signs and mostly unused lawn chairs. You could bring snacks or stand there with a sign for a bit if you're inclined. This way your daughter could talk to her teacher a little bit if she hasn't already had the chance. (Some schools had a welcome-back event on Tuesday, others cancelled theirs with the impending strike.) The teachers at our school have been thrilled to have kids and parents out with them and I think most schools feel that way, because most of the photos I've seen from the various pickets include a number of kids.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:31 PM on September 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
The theory here is that Seattle can't afford public schools unless it taps into the greater Washington tax base? Is one of those Detroit-like "there's money in the metro area but all outside the city limits" situations?
I don't know how much this is a factor in school funding, but in general it's more like "There's money here, but the city doesn't have the legal authority to put appropriate taxes in place". The legislature holds the majority of the taxing authority, and often refuses to grant it (because they're republicans). There's only so much the city can do in the face of that.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 8:04 AM on September 12, 2015
I don't know how much this is a factor in school funding, but in general it's more like "There's money here, but the city doesn't have the legal authority to put appropriate taxes in place". The legislature holds the majority of the taxing authority, and often refuses to grant it (because they're republicans). There's only so much the city can do in the face of that.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 8:04 AM on September 12, 2015
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posted by sallybrown at 6:13 PM on September 9, 2015 [53 favorites]