Seattle Teacher Strike Starts Today

[22*43*51]

Until they get more money, shorter days and less individual evaluations.

SEATTLE (AP) — Teachers in Seattle will walk picket lines Wednesday after last-minute negotiations over wages and other issues failed to avert a strike in Washington state's largest school district.

Classes for 53,000 Seattle Public Schools students were canceled Wednesday, on the scheduled first day of school.

Phyllis Campano, the union's vice president, said Tuesday night that the district came back with a proposal that the union "couldn't take seriously," and they decided to end for the night.

Members of the Seattle Education Association, which represents about 5,000 teachers and support staff, plan to picket at all 97 schools.

"Nobody really wants to strike, but at this point the school board has not come to the table with a serious proposal to get it done," Campano said. The union voted to walk out last week if a tentative agreement wasn't reached by the first day of school.

"Bargaining teams for both sides have worked hard over the past months and practically round the clock in recent days_putting in marathon hours over the Labor Day weekend," the school district said in a statement. "We are hopeful talks can resume and agreement can be reached to allow our students to start school."

Both sides remained far apart on key issues, including pay raises, teacher evaluations and the length of the school day. The district earlier offered an increase of nearly 9 percent over three years. The union countered with a 10.5 percent increase over two years, Campano said, but she said the district barely budged from its previous proposal.

Meanwhile, the Seattle School Board voted Tuesday night to authorize the district superintendent to take legal action against striking teachers.

Seattle parents were scrambling to come up with day care options, including working from home, swapping care with other parents or signing up for other programs. The city parks department was expanding before- and after-school care programs into all-day offerings because of the strike.

Seattle isn't the only district in the state facing a teacher labor action. Teachers in Pasco in southeast Washington have voted not to return to the classroom despite a court order to end the strike. In Pasco, teachers decided Monday night to remain on strike, idling 17,000 students on Tuesday in a dispute over pay and curriculum. Classes were canceled for another day Wednesday.

Washington state is being sanctioned $100,000 a day by the state Supreme Court because the justices say lawmakers have failed to adequately pay to educate the state's 1 million school children. The court has said the money is to be put in a separate fund for education.

Lawmakers have allocated billions of dollars toward public schools, but critics say that's not enough to meet the requirements in the state Constitution that education be the Legislature's "paramount duty."

The Washington Supreme Court decided in 2012 that state funding for education is not adequate. The justices said the state was relying too much on local dollars to make up for an inadequate state budget for education. Overreliance on local dollars makes the inequity worse because school districts with higher property values can raise more money more easily.


Rich Wood, a spokesman for the Washington Education Association, said the strikes were mainly about local issues not tied to the larger state debate about funding.

"The negotiations are about meeting the needs of students in school districts," Wood said.

 

[hawkeye54545]

If our Seattle posters here are what people are like in Seattle, they really need all that book learnin' they can get.

 

[dgordo]

Yet another reason I send my kids to private school.

 

[aflachawk]

Until they get more money, shorter days and less individual evaluations.

SEATTLE (AP) — Teachers in Seattle will walk picket lines Wednesday after last-minute negotiations over wages and other issues failed to avert a strike in Washington state's largest school district.

Classes for 53,000 Seattle Public Schools students were canceled Wednesday, on the scheduled first day of school.

Phyllis Campano, the union's vice president, said Tuesday night that the district came back with a proposal that the union "couldn't take seriously," and they decided to end for the night.

Members of the Seattle Education Association, which represents about 5,000 teachers and support staff, plan to picket at all 97 schools.

"Nobody really wants to strike, but at this point the school board has not come to the table with a serious proposal to get it done," Campano said. The union voted to walk out last week if a tentative agreement wasn't reached by the first day of school.

"Bargaining teams for both sides have worked hard over the past months and practically round the clock in recent days_putting in marathon hours over the Labor Day weekend," the school district said in a statement. "We are hopeful talks can resume and agreement can be reached to allow our students to start school."

Both sides remained far apart on key issues, including pay raises, teacher evaluations and the length of the school day. The district earlier offered an increase of nearly 9 percent over three years. The union countered with a 10.5 percent increase over two years, Campano said, but she said the district barely budged from its previous proposal.

Meanwhile, the Seattle School Board voted Tuesday night to authorize the district superintendent to take legal action against striking teachers.

Seattle parents were scrambling to come up with day care options, including working from home, swapping care with other parents or signing up for other programs. The city parks department was expanding before- and after-school care programs into all-day offerings because of the strike.

Seattle isn't the only district in the state facing a teacher labor action. Teachers in Pasco in southeast Washington have voted not to return to the classroom despite a court order to end the strike. In Pasco, teachers decided Monday night to remain on strike, idling 17,000 students on Tuesday in a dispute over pay and curriculum. Classes were canceled for another day Wednesday.

Washington state is being sanctioned $100,000 a day by the state Supreme Court because the justices say lawmakers have failed to adequately pay to educate the state's 1 million school children. The court has said the money is to be put in a separate fund for education.

Lawmakers have allocated billions of dollars toward public schools, but critics say that's not enough to meet the requirements in the state Constitution that education be the Legislature's "paramount duty."

The Washington Supreme Court decided in 2012 that state funding for education is not adequate. The justices said the state was relying too much on local dollars to make up for an inadequate state budget for education. Overreliance on local dollars makes the inequity worse because school districts with higher property values can raise more money more easily.


Rich Wood, a spokesman for the Washington Education Association, said the strikes were mainly about local issues not tied to the larger state debate about funding.

"The negotiations are about meeting the needs of students in school districts," Wood said.

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

Hopefully management will negotiate before it gets out of hand. I would hate for SPjr to have to private school like dgrodoJR has to.

 

[joelbc1]

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

and how much like most of us, teachers are. aflachawk...why should teachers be any different than anyone else in this country who works?

 

[Brian_Fantana]

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

And we wonder why most people under the age of 35 expect these exact things in ever profession they take on from year 1.

 

[Tom Paris]

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

You are well, something. And it ain't good.

 

[whatsup12579er]

The teachers probably need that much of a raise to offset the cost of living since Seattle jacked up their minimum wage.

 

[22*43*51]

They need the money so they can still afford to eat out at all those Seattle restaurants with $15 hour busboys.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

Those other countries the idiots (you?) always claim are doing better than we are...their teachers have fewer student contact hours. They have time to plan lessons and develop strategies AND they get paid for doing it. Go figure. So before you make yourself look stupid...do your homework.

 

[fredjr82]

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

You seem to think this type of argument is isolated to just teachers. I can point to 3 people in my office area in the private sector that want more money and less responsibility. Have you ever heard of anyone asking for more responsibility for equal or less pay? The employees of the private sector are just as likely to expect some type of compensation when they go above and beyond their expected duties. I wouldn't expect teachers to act any differently.

 

[22*43*51]

The employees of the private sector are just as likely to expect some type of compensation when they go above and beyond their expected duties. I wouldn't expect teachers to act any differently.

Yes. They're called promotions and merit pay.

If you don't deserve them, you don't get them. If you deserve them and you don't get them, you quit and go work for someone else.

If the guy next to you doesn't deserve them, he doesn't get them.

At the same time that guy doesn't get promotions and merit increases just because you earned them.

Collectivism doesn't operate that way.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

and how much like most of us, teachers are. aflachawk...why should teachers be any different than anyone else in this country who works?

I wish we were...at least in NC. Since 2008, when adjusted for inflation, my pay has been cut by over $5K/year. Same for my wife. They even ended the bump in pay for getting your master's degree - after my wife had already begun school. That makes her cut in pay more like $11K/year. Additionally, they have cut the supply budget by nearly 80% so not only are we working out of textbooks that are over a decade old but we are spending even more out-of-pocket for supplies.

This year they GOP idiots running our state - with a f'n VETO PROOF MAJORITY - are months late on finalizing the budget. My wife is a first-grade teacher and she lost her assistant. First-grade teachers have to assess each student individually...that can take up to 20 minutes per student just for reading. If you can figure out how to keep 21 first graders focused, quiet, and on task while you deal with student 1, you'll make a fortune. And you have to manage that magic for every student to be evaluated. At an average of ten minutes per student, your talking about hours of time where no one is teaching anything.

 

[22*43*51]

I wish we were...at least in NC. Since 2008, when adjusted for inflation, my pay has been cut by over $5K/year. Same for my wife. They even ended the bump in pay for getting your master's degree - after my wife had already begun school. That makes her cut in pay more like $11K/year. Additionally, they have cut the supply budget by nearly 80% so not only are we working out of textbooks that are over a decade old but we are spending even more out-of-pocket for supplies.

This year they GOP idiots running our state - with a f'n VETO PROOF MAJORITY - are months late on finalizing the budget. My wife is a first-grade teacher and she lost her assistant. First-grade teachers have to assess each student individually...that can take up to 20 minutes per student just for reading. If you can figure out how to keep 21 first graders focused, quiet, and on task while you deal with student 1, you'll make a fortune. And you have to manage that magic for every student to be evaluated. At an average of ten minutes per student, your talking about hours of time where no one is teaching anything.

NC has the same growing unfunded public pension liability as everyone else.

Fix that first so it stops pulling money from other programs, or your issues are only going to get worse.

 

[NoleandDawg]

I wish we were...at least in NC. Since 2008, when adjusted for inflation, my pay has been cut by over $5K/year. Same for my wife. They even ended the bump in pay for getting your master's degree - after my wife had already begun school. That makes her cut in pay more like $11K/year. Additionally, they have cut the supply budget by nearly 80% so not only are we working out of textbooks that are over a decade old but we are spending even more out-of-pocket for supplies.

This year they GOP idiots running our state - with a f'n VETO PROOF MAJORITY - are months late on finalizing the budget. My wife is a first-grade teacher and she lost her assistant. First-grade teachers have to assess each student individually...that can take up to 20 minutes per student just for reading. If you can figure out how to keep 21 first graders focused, quiet, and on task while you deal with student 1, you'll make a fortune. And you have to manage that magic for every student to be evaluated. At an average of ten minutes per student, your talking about hours of time where no one is teaching anything.

I dated a teacher for a little while, and while it is true that I made more $ than her I worked twice as hard. According to her contract she had to be in school from 8:20-3:30. She also got one hour for lunch and a one house free period for grading papers or whatever. In essence she had a 7 hour "work day," where she only actually had to work 5. Plus she got her entire summer off plus spring break and two weeks at Christmas all paid. Teaching is a boondoggle.

 

[naturalmwa]

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

It warms my heart that you view libs as the nation's educators. I think that's sort of nice.

 

[cigaretteman]

Those other countries the idiots (you?) always claim are doing better than we are...their teachers have fewer student contact hours. They have time to plan lessons and develop strategies AND they get paid for doing it. Go figure. So before you make yourself look stupid...do your homework.

Most likely don't have to buy class supplies for their teaching jobs out of their own pockets like most American teachers do either!

 

[tarheelbybirth]

NC has the same growing unfunded public pension liability as everyone else.

Fix that first so it stops pulling money from other programs, or your issues are only going to get worse.

No, it doesn't. NC has one of the healthiest public pension plans in the country...the unfunded pension liability amounts to less than $400/per capita - only Wisky and Washington are in better shape. I don't have a problem with common sense changes, but I don't trust the current regime to do that. They haven't demonstrated that they have any sense at all.

So that's pretty much a red herring. The real problem is their continued reliance on trickle-down bullshyte.

 

[naturalmwa]

They need the money so they can still afford to eat out at all those Seattle restaurants with $15 hour busboys.

This could be interpreted as quite a deal. Going to need a pic of the busboy to know for sure.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

I dated a teacher for a little while, and while it is true that I made more $ than her I worked twice as hard. According to her contract she had to be in school from 8:20-3:30. She also got one hour for lunch and a one house free period for grading papers or whatever. In essence she had a 7 hour "work day," where she only actually had to work 5. Plus she got her entire summer off plus spring break and two weeks at Christmas all paid. Teaching is a boondoggle.

LOL. You're a f'n idiot. No wonder she dumped you. Teachers have a contract, typically 190-200 days. No teacher gets paid for any more than that unless they take on extra duties like coaching. And NO teacher gets paid for summer.

 

[NoleandDawg]

LOL. You're a f'n idiot. No wonder she dumped you. Teachers have a contract, typically 190-200 days. No teacher gets paid for any more than that unless they take on extra duties like coaching. And NO teacher gets paid for summer.

Semantics! The average teacher in Las Vegas makes $50,000+ each year. And while it is true that is for whatever the school year is most teachers get a paycheck for the whole year including the summer. They also get guaranteed pensions and still have a de facto 5 hour work day.

Assuming that they work 7 hours a day for 200 days a year this means that they work 1400 hours a year and earn $50,000. This means they earn $35+ an hour.

Contrast that with the rest of us working stiffs that work an average 9 hours a day (8-5) for 50 weeks. That's an average of 2250 hours a year. At $35 an hour that's an average salary of over $78,000. As I said I make more than that but I also hold a professional degree which she didn't. The notion that teachers are underpaid is a gigantic myth.

 

[Tom Paris]

I dated a teacher for a little while, and while it is true that I made more $ than her I worked twice as hard. According to her contract she had to be in school from 8:20-3:30. She also got one hour for lunch and a one house free period for grading papers or whatever. In essence she had a 7 hour "work day," where she only actually had to work 5. Plus she got her entire summer off plus spring break and two weeks at Christmas all paid. Teaching is a boondoggle.

There is so much fail in this post. So, in your words, grading papers isn't work? What she does in her prep time isn't work? You are also another person who believes teachers actually get paid for the summer, spring break and Christmas. No. We do not get paid for those days. We get paid for the 180-190 days in our contracts. AGAIN...teachers do NOT get paid for their summers off.

By the way, I think I am paid just fine. I don't want programs and support staff taken from the kids. That's where I don't like the budget cuts.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

Semantics! The average teacher in Las Vegas makes $50,000+ each year. And while it is true that is for whatever the school year is most teachers get a paycheck for the whole year including the summer. They also get guaranteed pensions and still have a de facto 5 hour work day.

Assuming that they work 7 hours a day for 200 days a year this means that they work 1400 hours a year and earn $50,000. This means they earn $35+ an hour.

Contrast that with the rest of us working stiffs that work an average 9 hours a day (8-5) for 50 weeks. That's an average of 2250 hours a year. At $35 an hour that's an average salary of over $78,000. As I said I make more than that but I also hold a professional degree which she didn't. The notion that teachers are underpaid is a gigantic myth.

You should quit while you're behind. I get to work at 6:45 and I leave at 3:45. Do the math. I get no "lunch time" because I'm in the cafeteria monitoring students...that's when I eat. I sponsor two different academic clubs (unpaid) so two days a week, I walk out at 5. I spent an unpaid week away from home this summer taking my "state champion" TSA team to Dallas to compete in Nationals. I spent another unpaid week getting training in my curriculum. At home, I do all the planning necessary and take care of grading work.

I'm working right now...my class is working with a simulation program (a NASA site) and 3-D CAD software (Autodesk Inventor) to design the most efficient airfoils. They have to take aspect ratio and camber into account in their design as well as account for air density at different altitudes. Can you run Inventor? My 7th graders can. Do you know how to calculate camber or aspect ratio? My 7th graders can show you. From my desktop, I can monitor every one of them, communicate with them individually or in groups, control their computer to show them what needs to be done....it's a dream job and I love it.

What I really wish is that we could get the funding so they could 3-D print their airfoils and test them in a real wind tunnel. Spend my nights and weekends writing grants to try and get that kind of equipment. I'm not the exception, I'm the rule. So take your idiotic calculations and insert them into your rectum. If you need help finding it...ask a bio teacher.

 

[whatsup12579er]

That strange. My wife's (no pic) contract is similar, around 190 days, but she gets paid in June, July and August even tho school is out most of that time. She is not contracted to work during that time but she sure as hell is getting paid.

 

[Smalls4IA]

Semantics! The average teacher in Las Vegas makes $50,000+ each year. And while it is true that is for whatever the school year is most teachers get a paycheck for the whole year including the summer. They also get guaranteed pensions and still have a de facto 5 hour work day.

Assuming that they work 7 hours a day for 200 days a year this means that they work 1400 hours a year and earn $50,000. This means they earn $35+ an hour.

Contrast that with the rest of us working stiffs that work an average 9 hours a day (8-5) for 50 weeks. That's an average of 2250 hours a year. At $35 an hour that's an average salary of over $78,000. As I said I make more than that but I also hold a professional degree which she didn't. The notion that teachers are underpaid is a gigantic myth.

If a guy cleaning tables deserves $15 per hour, a teacher sure as hell better get paid $35 per hour.

 

[Tom Paris]

That strange. My wife's (no pic) contract is similar, around 190 days, but she gets paid in June, July and August even tho school is out most of that time. She is not contracted to work during that time but she sure as hell is getting paid.

She is getting paid because they spread our pay out over 12 months, instead of 9. Again, we aren't being paid for hours we are not working.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

That strange. My wife's (no pic) contract is similar, around 190 days, but she gets paid in June, July and August even tho school is out most of that time. She is not contracted to work during that time but she sure as hell is getting paid.

You don't know that your wife has the option of getting her pay spread out over 12 months rather than 10? You two need to work on your communication. What you SHOULD be telling her is to take the 10-month option and bank the extra so she earns interest (however small). She's giving her district an interest-free loan.

 

[gusto79]

She is getting paid because they spread our pay out over 12 months, instead of 9. Again, we aren't being paid for hours we are not working.

When teachers talk about their salaries, do you usually say you make $XX,XXX per year? Or do you specify you make $XX,XXX per 9 months?

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

You don't know that your wife has the option of getting her pay spread out over 12 months rather than 10? You two need to work on your communication. What you SHOULD be telling her is to take the 10-month option and bank the extra so she earns interest (however small). She's giving her district an interest-free loan.

There is a good chance depending on who writes the payroll program that more money will be taken by state and federal taxes over 10 months than 12. Granted that will lower the tax burden or increase your return at the end of the year, but I do not like the government using my money!

 

[tarheelbybirth]

When teachers talk about their salaries, do you usually say you make $XX,XXX per year? Or do you specify you make $XX,XXX per 9 months?

I say per year...because that's how much I'm paid per year. But my contract is only for ten months.

 

[22*43*51]

If a guy cleaning tables deserves $15 per hour, a teacher sure as hell better get paid $35 per hour.

That's not how closing the "Wealth Gap" works.

If, everyone just adjusts "up" accordingly then we still have the same "Gap".

The goal is to pull everyone to the middle.

You know. Socialism.

 

[22*43*51]

No, it doesn't. NC has one of the healthiest public pension plans in the country...the unfunded pension liability amounts to less than $400/per capita - only Wisky and Washington are in better shape.

The Canaries are hitting the floor of the cage.

For the last several years, however, North Carolinians have been assured that North Carolina’s pension system is among the strongest in the nation. But these days that would be akin to saying you are in the nicest suite in the Titanic. Everything is relative.

While North Carolina’s pension system for retired teachers and state employees is not as far underwater as those of say California or Illinois, there is still cause for concern.

• As of 2010, the state’s primary pension plan had accumulated $2.8 billion in unfunded liabilities.
• Annual taxpayer support for the pension plan is estimated to total more than $800 million this year, and grow past the $1 billion mark in the next five years.
• The average state pension payout to North Carolina state retirees is 66 percent higher than the national average retirement income for former private sector workers.
• Only about 20 percent of private sector workers have access to the same type of retirement plan that North Carolina government workers enjoy.
• Tens of thousands of additional retirees will begin to draw pension benefits in the next decade, and they will be living longer.

http://www.nccivitas.org/2012/reforms-needed-for-north-carolinas-ailing-pension-system/

 

[gonegolfing]

So instead of arguing that you guys don't get paid when you don't work (ie. summer, spring break, Xmas break, etc.), you think it looks better to say you make 60k plus full benes for working 190 days?

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

When someone yells "fore", you should probably start ducking.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

There is a good chance depending on who writes the payroll program that more money will be taken by state and federal taxes over 10 months than 12. Granted that will lower the tax burden or increase your return at the end of the year, but I do not like the government using my money!

They do take more. What really kills is when you get a coaching stipend or some other extra pay. The way the accounting works - here at least - is they hit that check for nearly 50%. Now I know that money comes back at tax time but there's still a little sting to it.

 

[thewop]

You seem to think this type of argument is isolated to just teachers. I can point to 3 people in my office area in the private sector that want more money and less responsibility. Have you ever heard of anyone asking for more responsibility for equal or less pay? The employees of the private sector are just as likely to expect some type of compensation when they go above and beyond their expected duties. I wouldn't expect teachers to act any differently.

Your analysis is correct. I think there are a few things about educators striking that irritate people more than the average. In the private sector, in the situation you describe, there isn't a union, so people are allowed to act as individuals, and that's fine. When unions are involved, particularly teachers unions, it negatively impacts teachers who DO wish to perform their jobs under current circumstances, but are pressured to strike by the union. It also directly impacts the students, and taxpayers. When the sticking points are more money, less hours, and less accountability, and the taxpayers as well as their children are directly impacted...well, that's when the teachers union doesn't look so good. Top it off with the fact that our public schools are not fairing so well nationally in learning outcomes (I can't speak for that particular district)...

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Teachers want more money for less hours and do not want to held accountable. It warms my heart to see how much libs care about the youth of our country.

Why is this a bad thing. . . our employer is always going to want more responsibility for less money from us. It's natural that the employee try to acheive the opposite. . . less responsibility for more money. Isn't negotiation on these things . . . a specific service for a specific price suppose to be the very foundation of capitalism??

It's almost like capitalism's biggest defenders hate capitalism when it comes to employee's trying to negotiate higher pay. It's like you think the employer is the only one who's suppose to benefit from capitalism and us employee's are just suppose to grin and be happy with whatever turd sandwich our employer finds it in the goodness of his heart to compensate us.

 

[whatsup12579er]

You don't know that your wife has the option of getting her pay spread out over 12 months rather than 10? You two need to work on your communication. What you SHOULD be telling her is to take the 10-month option and bank the extra so she earns interest (however small). She's giving her district an interest-free loan.

She doesn't have a 10 month option but thanks for acting like you know everything.

 

[22*43*51]

Why is this a bad thing. . . our employer is always going to want more responsibility for less money from us. It's natural that the employee try to acheive the opposite. . .

Anyone who has every received a promotion understands this is necessary to advance.

That is how you show initiative. That is what separates you from your peers. That is how you compete.

That is Capitalism. If you don't understand this then you most certainly report to someone who does.

Collective bargaining makes sure the herd slows down to accommodate the weakest member. That will always frustrate the truly talented and competitive individuals.