Teachers Strike

The school year was supposed to start Sept 7th, however, the strike continues to be extended. That maybe over, however, as the teachers and the school district have reached a “tentative agreement”. 

Washington state’s largest school district, Seattle Public Schools, announced late Monday it had reached a tentative agreement with Seattle Education Association on its educators’ contract. This comes as great news for many families as they try to get back to work and in the office.

Seattle Schools released a statement, acknowledging the tentative agreement but not really saying much on the matter according to ABC News, “For now, the details of the tentative agreement are confidential”. The Emerald City Journal was disappointed by all parties and the lack of transparency. The newspaper responded late Tuesday, “We go through this exercise just about every year and these are the employees we pay for with our taxes. They all work for us and they should all do their jobs better to represent the public. That includes all parties involved. If this was any other business, a lot of people would be shown the door and honestly, there are 100’s of others who would step up to replace them. Over time we’ve created a system that is poorly operated and not sustainable. The educational system has been ruined with privileged characters all protected by agreements, rules, bargaining parties, and the union. We will go through this again soon.”

On Tuesday, union members voted on whether to lift the strike. Among 78% of those voting, 57% approved a motion to suspend the strike, according to the union’s Twitter feed. School is expected to start on Wednesday.

As of late Monday night, the union was “excited” to have reached a tentative deal.

It was an “incredible effort” by both sides to reach an agreement, the school district stated.

All this comes, while today, the Dow dropped 1200 points devastating the financial savings across the country. It marks the worst drop since June 2020. Families are struggling to put food on their tables and inflation continues to run wild. Biden and the White House threw an ‘inflation reduction’ celebration with James Taylor on the South Lawn. Nothing to see here…. everything is going just great!

Photo by Peffs