OLYMPIA — As the wave of one-day teacher strikes reached Marysville on Friday, some state senators said they would like to punish picketing educators by not paying them.
Classes were canceled in the Marysville School District as hundreds of teachers and supporters gathered on State Avenue to wave signs and loudly protest for higher pay and smaller class sizes.
“Our emphasis was fully funding education, which is required by the (state) Constitution, which says it is the paramount duty of the state,” said Randy Davis, president of the Marysville Education Association.
Marysville teachers are particularly frustrated by crowded classrooms, and they chanted vociferously for lawmakers to carry out Initiative 1351, which requires fewer students in classes at all grade levels, Davis said.
Teachers in Oak Harbor also walked off the job Friday. In all, teachers in 24 Western Washington school districts voted to conduct one-day walkouts, including one next Friday in Granite Falls.
In Olympia this week, Republican senators denounced the job actions. They said such strikes are illegal under state law, but because the law is widely ignored, participants face no consequences, not even a loss of earnings in districts where the collective bargaining agreement prohibits such behavior.
“If a worker at Boeing goes on strike, they lose a day’s pay and may or may not get it back,” said Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville. If teachers go on strike, they still “get every single dollar in their contract,” while families bear the inconvenience and cost of day care or other activities, he said.
“It is not civil disobedience. It is punishing families,” he said.
Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, has introduced a bill to bar teachers from getting paid while on strike.
Teachers only get paid for the days they work, said Rich Wood of the Washington Education Association.
“Marysville teachers spent Friday advocating for their students and their community’s public schools,” Wood said. “Meanwhile, the Senate was adjourned, and the Legislature remains in contempt of court.”
In Marysville, Davis said in an interview that the senators should not be targeting teachers but focus on providing adequate dollars to the public school system, as required by a state Supreme Court ruling.
“They’re punishing the kids by not fully funding education and by squeezing them into overcrowded classrooms,” he said. “We want to sit down and solve the problem. They just want to go after the union.”
Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday said talk of punishing teachers is a “diversion” from the task of meeting the Supreme Court deadline in what is known as the McCleary case.
“I’d rather have teachers in the classroom,” he said. But over the long term, making sure the state education system is amply funded is “more important than griping about a one-day teacher action in protest.”
Marysville and Oak Harbor were not the first area districts to endure walkouts.
Educators in the Arlington, Lakewood and Stanwood-Camano districts carried out a combined protest April 22. That day, the Stanwood-Camano and Lakewood school districts canceled classes. In Arlington it was a scheduled half day, so teachers completed morning classes before taking part in the afternoon protest.
Meanwhile, in Granite Falls, the school district will cancel classes May 8 and make them up June 12. The school year had been scheduled to end June 11.
Superintendent Linda Hall notified parents Friday.
“The teachers union has assured us that the action is not directed at Granite Falls School District or the Granite Falls community,” Hall wrote to parents. “Union leaders want to be very clear about that. Their purpose is to apply political pressure on legislators around the importance of educational funding.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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