Teachers are givers. We reach into our pockets to give additional school supplies that aren’t in the budget. We give our time beyond the school day to plan lessons and provide students with feedback. We try to keep joy in learning despite the added demands of teacher evaluation, standardized testing and overcrowded classrooms. We are asked by the Legislature each year to do more with less. Though the Legislature is in contempt of court by not providing a budget that adequately funds public education, lawmakers have done nothing to make good on their duty to the children of this state. We remain 47th worst in the nation for class size. Our kids are tested to death but are never given the optimal conditions for learning.
And though the Supreme Court ruling included teacher pay as an essential component of adequate funding, lawmakers make no effort to bring teacher salaries equal to what we have lost to inflation over the last six years. Yet lawmakers are poised to gain an 11 percent increase in their salaries. So as a last resort, because teachers are kind, giving people, we are forced to get the Legislature’s attention by walking out. It is never our first choice. It makes us uncomfortable too. We just want to teach. But right now lawmakers are making that impossible. We are not walking out to hurt kids. It is lawmakers’ arrogant refusal to uphold the state Constitution that hurts kids. It is classrooms that are overcrowded with 32 students in a room that hurts kids. It is fewer dollars for curriculum and materials that hurts kids. It is substandard pay for teachers that hurts kids. So please: Understand. Support us. Write or call your legislators. It’s time to stand up for schools.
Feather Asmussen,
Lake Stevens teacher
Edmonds
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