In an action taken in the past hour or so, Seattle teachers voted to strike.
The two big issues: a salary increase; recess time for children. Many children in the district get only 15 minutes a day of recess. Teachers want children to have at least 30-45 minutes a day.
“The union is advocating for a decrease in the use of high-stakes testing. This would include forming a joint committee with the union and the district to accept or reject any standardized testing beyond the federally mandated tests and getting rid of the “Student Growth Rating” that ties tested subject teacher’s evaluations to standardized tests scores. The Seattle School District has inundated our school with dozens of tests that students have to take in their lives as K-12 students, and it’s past time that we reclaim our classrooms for teaching rather than test prep.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
SEA also supporting counselors and psychologists. Great group of reforms and I’m glad SEA finally stepped-up.
LikeLike
Wonderful news! Seattle teachers set an example for how to rescue our public schools from the looting, the testing, and the privatizers. Let’s hope teachers in other beleaguered cities follow suit.
LikeLike
Not only did we vote to strike, but it was UNANIMOUS! Not one nay vote, and there were several thousand present.
LikeLike
Good for the Seattle teachers. So proud of you all! And in Gates’ backyard, no less.
LikeLike
Yes. Location, location, location.
LikeLike
Good luck! Wonderful news.
LikeLike
These teachers are willing to stand up for their convictions. I envy their solidarity and am solidly on their side. I hope the strike will force relevant change for public Ed in Seattle. Now that is a union. Fighting for its membership.
LikeLike
They are also fighting for their students: more counselors, less testing, equitable recess time among schools.
LikeLike
Thank you Seattle teachers for advocating for more recess!
LikeLike
The entire nation stands with you, Seattle.
It would be wonderful if we had a union in New York that lived up to its responsibilities, instead of one that is complicit with a majority of “regents”, harmfully serving as political lackeys for a governor who has sold his soul to “financial” interests.
Thank you, teachers of Seattle…for keeping the flames of decency, dignity, and self-respect alive while serving as defenders of our youngest citizens…and for all of our children.
LikeLike
Amen to Steve B.’s comment.
LikeLike
Agreed as well. How did NYSUT and the UFT get so lame? Every time I hear our esteemed NYSUT president speak she says the right things, but the actions of the Union are cowardly. I want my union to kick butt, not be a compromiser.
LikeLike
Mass corruption at the state level bled inward? Or was it just insidious internal corporatization that was masked as the solidarity of yesteryears and concentrated in a boom of retirees? Ask Norm Scott. I’m really just guessing.
LikeLike
Turnaround model for the school district administration? They should have negotiated this two months ago.
LikeLike
I am a Seattle teacher. I don’t have the feeling that the salary increase is on union members’ minds as much of the many other issues which are more directly related to students. Recess, less testing, smaller caseloads for specialists…..These are all very important to us. While yes, we deserve a raise and the cost of living in Seattle is skyrocketing, I don’t have the feeling that this is the issue that most concerns us.
We are in support of students, partly by supporting each other – parapros, specialists, etc, each of whom helps students.
Solidarity!
LikeLike
Exactly. When the Chicago teachers went on strike, the media made hay about the salary issue (Chicago teachers are already the nation’s highest paid teachers, they squawked), but really it was about the testing, class size, curriculum, etc.
Anyway, best wishes to all of you. Is there a strike fund?
LikeLike
And I believe Chicago was barred from bargaining on the classroom issues, so salary negotiations became an back door avenue to those discussions. Is there a Chicago teacher in the house?
LikeLike
Of course, you are teachers and that’s what you do, advocate for students and their rights.
LikeLike
I suspect that what you say is true but my personal preference would have been to strike ONLY on the educative things. As has been said, the media will likely focus on the money issue. I understand your position on the money but PERHAPS taking the issues separately MIGHT have been a better strategy.
LikeLike
So basically, since teachers have not had cost of living raises in six years, you are asking for 2% for each of those years and 2% for the next three. Yes?
LikeLike
So proud tonight to be a member of the Seattle Education Association!
LikeLike
Check out the Seattle EA statement on the strike vote: http://www.SeattleWEA.org.
LikeLike
It is great to see teachers standing up for their students and their profession. If they need to build up a strike fund, I’ll contribute.
LikeLike
Let’s hope they get lots of media attention and a chance to explain to the public their reasons for choosing to strike and the issues confronting them on a daily basis.
LikeLike
Go Seattle!!! Make Gates sleepless!!!
LikeLike
I’m finally proud of my union!
LikeLike
Teachers have come to the realization that we are the experts that have the answers. The school district administration is filled with people who are over-paid and under-worked. They are out of touch with the needs of the children and prone to the corporate education reform propaganda that is based on private research and not the peer reviewed standard that we hold. They do not have the answers. We do.
LikeLike
Hold that thought, good man.
LikeLike
Makes me wish for Seattle. A hometown that has, in so many ways (all of them post Microsoft) grown strange to me. . .Solidarity with Seattle teachers from a teacher who is far from home but close in spirit. I especially applaud the leadership that some Seattle teachers have shown in QUESTIONING reliance on high-stakes tests. I say continue to say NO to a scourge that has blighted much of public education since the introduction of NCLB. Some misguided educationists have, in my opinion, looked to testing done internationally and called it good — without looking at entirely different social contexts or the entirety of the education practices in those countries. I will be following your story, Seattlle heros, and applauding.
LikeLike
Like!
LikeLike
My thinking is that if anything is privatized, it should be the testing and the test prep. If parents want tests and test prep, they could buy it from the private developers/producers, in their own private buildings. That way, parents would have full choice (scholarships could be offered if they don’t come out of school funds, and schools would be for teaching and learning again!
LikeLike
A great day in Washington State; vouchers declared unconstitutional and now this strike. Stand strong, fellow educators!
LikeLike