The feelings of students, parents, letter writers on this page — and now the governor — about the Marysville School District teachers’ strike can be summed in two words:
Enough already!
The perplexing and increasingly disgraceful stalemate that has yielded the longest teachers’ strike in state history got a swift kick where it was needed Thursday when Gov. Gary Locke, after meeting with both sides, called on them to open school Monday — with or without an agreement.
That puts the pressure on both sides to get off their high horses at today’s bargaining session. No more repeating party lines. No more digging in of heels. It’s time for both sides to move past the bitterness they’ve created and do what’s right for the one group that’s been hurt the most by this mess: the children of Marysville.
Kids and families are the "collateral damage" caught in the crossfire of this district-union showdown. High school seniors have taken a particularly damaging hit, and need to get back in the classroom immediately to make up for lost time in this most important of years for them. As it is, all of the district’s 11,000 students and their families will have to rearrange plans for vacations, holiday breaks and perhaps weekends. And the healing process is likely to take years.
Locke on Thursday said it was "unacceptable that neither side has shown a sense of urgency to resolve the strike," and he’s right. But the deck is stacked against urgency when both sides know that by law, a full school year is guaranteed, along with full salaries. The only urgency comes from a sense of doing what’s right for the children, who supposedly represent the reason good educators enter the field in the first place.
Pity the side that doesn’t show urgency now — they might as well leave town. Both sides need to change their thinking, starting today, and compromise. Given the shocking lack of communication that has taken place on both sides since the bargaining process began last spring, huge progress stands to be made if they’ll only talk seriously.
The district must understand that while its goal is to stay on solid financial ground while raising student achievement, it may be asking teachers to swallow too much in a single gulp. It took years for the current compensation system to take shape; it can’t be reshaped completely in a single contract.
The teachers’ union must come to grips with the fact that with dwindling state support, there’s only so much the district can do financially. Teachers should be willing to consider at least a phased-in move to the state salary schedule — one that doesn’t force anyone to take a pay cut. And both sides must work to find a middle ground on the issues of locally funded pay increases and district-controlled training.
If nothing else, this painful episode has served as a harsh reminder that a stable source of state funding for education must be found. As long as government raises the bar on student achievement without providing the money to support it, fights like this will continue to play out and children will be the losers.
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