Seattle school teachers are on strike today at the first day of school.
It's their first strike in 30 years. Here's the article from today's New
York Times. I'll have more later on this.
*Strike by Seattle Teachers Adds to School Turmoil in State *
By KIRK JOHNSON
SEPT. 8, 2015 SEATTLE — The union representing about 5,000 teachers and
other workers in the Seattle public schools said Tuesday night that
contract talks had broken down and that the first teachers strike here in
30 years would begin on Wednesday, which had been the first scheduled day
of classes.
The union and the city had been far apart through a long holiday weekend of
negotiations, but with the deadline looming for the opening bell of school,
key questions over pay, staffing levels and student testing could not be
resolved.
The strike promises to throw Washington’s public school system, which was
already struggling with a huge fight over funding, into even further
turmoil. Washington State’s highest court declared last week that much of
the law underpinning the new charter school system around the state was
unconstitutional.
The court set a 20day clock, at which time the charter system could be
dismantled — a step that legal experts said no other state court had ever
taken. The State Supreme Court, the panel that struck down the charter law,
last month began assessing $100,000 a day in fines on the state until the
Legislature comes up with a plan to better fund the system as a whole.
So even before the strike, charter schools like Summit Sierra School here
in Seattle were struggling to understand their legal status. “They’re sort
of taking away our choice,” said Lashaunycee O’Cain, 14, a student at
Summit Sierra, after raising her hand in a classroom discussion about what
the court did “I want to be here,” she said.
The new order on charter schools, though it affects only nine schools
around the state and about 1,200 students, will intensify that fight over
money, people on both sides said, partly by introducing a new combatant
into the ring.
Parents, students and organizations that support publicly funded but
privately managed charter schools are pledging to fight for funding
alongside groups like teachers’ unions that want to save and bolster
traditional schools. The two camps have sharply different goals, but both
want something from the Legislature, which is split, with a Republican led
coalition controlling the Senate and Democrats in charge in the House. “We
are now firmly on that chess table,” said Thomas Franta, the chief
executive of the Washington State Charter Schools Association.
Plenty of traditional schools were facing a rocky start. In addition to
Seattle, at least three other school systems have struggled in contract
talks this year. Teachers in Pasco are already on strike while teachers in
Spokane were expected to vote on a new contract Tuesday. The South Whidbey
district had reached an agreement and was ready to begin classes.
The charter school case was brought by the League of Women Voters of
Washington, with parents, the teachers’ union and other groups. The court
ruled that under the State Constitution, charter schools had to be run by a
locally elected school board because they are operated with public money.
Mr. Franta said that he was optimistic that a political solution would be
found to allow the charter schools to operate, and that he hoped Gov. Jay
Inslee, a Democrat, would call a special session of the Legislature soon to
tackle the public schools funding crisis more broadly.
Mr. Inslee has not said whether he will do that. Mr. Franta said in
interview that the Charter Schools Association would keep its schools open
regardless of court orders. But he said the political terrain had gotten
tricky because with two giant education issues facing the Legislature, the
pressure would be immense to tackle them at the same time in a special
session. “And doing them both at the same time is going to be more
difficult,” he added.
Rich Wood, a spokesman for the Washington Education Association, a
teachers’ union, said the new order simply made the underlying problem of
the system more stark: “It’s a reminder that the state is failing its
paramount duty to fully fund education.” Teachers and their unions across
the state have harped on that message for months, laying the groundwork for
a larger conflict, even before Tuesday night’s strike declaration.
Rallies were held in many communities to support or condemn members of the
Legislature as budget bills to address the high court’s funding orders were
being debated at the capital in Olympia.
In Seattle, teachers complained about six years with no state cost of
living pay increase, even as the city began to boom with rising rents;
five years with no state increase in funding for educator health care; and
overwhelmed education aides who were not able to help students.
The Seattle Public Schools said on its website that it hoped for resumption
of the talks, but that for now, parents and students would have to prepare
for something not seen here in a generation. “Bargaining teams for both
sides have worked hard over the past months and practically round the clock
in recent days,” the school system said in a statement. “We are hopeful
talks can resume”
Some experts on school financing and state charter school laws said that
they believed the Washington court defined public schools differently — the
court cited a 1909 legal precedent requiring schools to be governed by
locally elected boards — and that it was very unlikely that charter school
foes could mount similar cases in other states.
But David Sciarra, the executive director of the Education Law Center,
which advises lawyers on education financing cases, said the Washington
ruling could foreshadow fights over charter school funding and how it
affects traditional public schools.
Particularly in communities with large numbers of charter schools, legacy
school districts struggle with declining enrollments that can lead to
school closings and leave the remaining schools with students who often are
the most difficult to educate. Washington’s education funding problem had
already been focused on fairness and balance. In the overarching schools
case, McCleary v. State of Washington, which led to the order last month on
fines, the court said years of underfunding had created a patchwork of rich
and poor, with some districts better able to raise taxes and money for
their schools than others.
The court said it would put the $700,000 a week in contempt order fines
assessed on the state into an education fund and keep collecting the money
until a new plan was approved. In its new 6to3 ruling on the charter
schools case, League of Women Voters of Washington v. State of Washington,
the court said that public funding and local control were intertwined and
enshrined in Washington law and that privately run charter school boards
did not constitute that elected control.
“The fiscal impact of the initiative was merely to shift existing school
funding from existing (common) schools to charter schools,” the court said.
At the state commission created by a 2012 referendum to oversee the charter
schools, meanwhile, officials are preparing to turn out the lights in 20
days.
“Four employees here, all laid off as soon as this ruling is final,
including me,” said Joshua Halsey, the executive director of the Washington
State Charter Schools Commission. Motoko Rich contributed reporting from
New York.
