As Seattle teachers and administrators were headed for another strike the other day, state Sen. Reuven Carlyle, a Seattle Democrat, tried to appeal to the better angels of community reason. Citing all the pandemic disruptions of the past few years, he called on both sides, in the “spirit of grace and humility,” to make concessions to avoid this strike.
“This is not the year for an adult fight,” he concluded.
Boy did he get blistered for saying that.
Adult-fighting is Seattle’s love language, senator; you should know that by now. Complete with sign-waving, sidewalk-rallying and protest chanting, it’s one of the main ways we communicate around here.
I don’t have as personal a stake in this strike, because both my Seattle Public Schools kids are now off in college. The last strike, in 2015, kept them out of middle school for a week. That one went well for the teachers, as the cause was widely supported by the broader community, and by most school parents, including me.
This one has been more of a reach, as Carlyle was suggesting.
In 2015, Seattle was booming, school enrollment was surging, and teachers and schools around the state really were being seriously shortchanged. The problem now is that enrollment has dropped. The district is expecting budget shortfalls escalating up to $128 million in 2025.