I am a retired teacher from a teaching family. I have observed the ins and outs of teacher strikes and levy failures for 40 years. Those who think “teachers should just be glad they have a job” miss the point. The real reason they are angry with teacher strikes is because the pocket books of the entire community are affected when our education system shuts down.

Our public schools are the foundation of our society, and keeping them stable is essential to keeping our American civilization alive. Striking teachers have sounded the alarm. The real issues behind teacher strikes are rarely dealt with. Government efforts to reform the system have backfired and need to be reworked.

Ironically, our current education system “improvements” have gradually become more about massive regulation than about helping each student meet his or her highest potential. Educators have become more accountable to bureaucrats than to students and parents. A quality education program needs to address individual needs. Quality teachers accomplish this instinctively. However, increased “individualized education plan” regulations require massive amounts of paperwork as hoops to jump through to get funding. Time spent meeting this requirement competes for the time teachers should be using to directly serve their students. On top of this, schools which fail to produce significant enough increases in WASL scores in any student subgroup will find their school’s federal funding punitively reduced. How will cutting funds help struggling populations achieve more?

It used to be that funds were used to educate students; now we educate students to get funds. The idea of accountability has gone haywire.

Rather than tearing our schools down at this crucial time, please work to build them up. Help your child’s teacher by supporting efforts at home. Volunteer at a local school. Write to your senators and representatives and encourage them to adequately and directly fund education.

Snohomish