Striking teachers walk line, get a win
Educators in Tacoma, Washington, get a pay raise as protests continue
TACOMA, Wash. – Anne Hawkins prided herself on teaching students at Jason Lee Middle School to stand up for themselves. In almost two decades as a language arts educator, she’s implored youths to call out inequality.
So instead of reporting to her classroom the way she had every September for 19 years, Hawkins walked the picket line last week with more than 2,000 of her fellow teachers. Striking for better pay, teachers from Tacoma Public Schools were joined by hundreds of parents and students who supported the walkout. They circled the district administration building as Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and “Revolution” by The Beatles played on loop.
“If any students asked me what I was doing, the answer would be simple,” Hawkins said. “I would say, ‘I’m doing the thing we talk about and practice every day in class.’ ”
The week of protests got results – a 14.4 percent pay bump, and another victory for teachers, as strikes continue to rock the education world. Supported by parents and community members, educators’ efforts are gaining momentum.
Across the country, teachers want higher salaries. They’re fed up with paying for school supplies out of their own pocket and working extra hours.
Last school year, teachers staged statewide strikes in West Virginia, Arizona and Oklahoma. They rallied in Kentucky, North Carolina and Colorado, closing some of the biggest schools.
Unrest from educators has persisted this year. About a dozen districts in Washington missed their back-toschool dates because of teacher strikes, the state teachers’ union said.
In Los Angeles, teachers at the nation’s second-largest school district voted to strike if negotiators can’t reach an agreement. A walkout could come as soon as next month.
Strikes in other parts of the country were “catalyzing” for Tacoma teachers, said Nate Bowling, a teacher at Lincoln High School.
The Washington Supreme Court ruled in 2012 the state wasn’t spending enough to cover basic education costs. Justices ordered legislators to fix that by the start of this school year.
Many Washington schools directed the millions they received to sizable pay increases. Not Tacoma. Administrators said they needed the money to fill upcoming budget holes.
Educators protested they could drive
10 minutes from their school and get a
$10,000 raise. They were particularly rankled by the salary of Tacoma Superintendent Carla Santorno ($291,000 in
2017-18) compared with that of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee ($177,107).
Parents and taxpayers backed the educators. When the school district posted on Facebook it would be closed last week, it received hundreds of comments in response – many of them angry parents, siding with teachers.
“My daughter needs to be in school! She wants to be at school,” commented Leonette Hall, whose youngest daughter is a 10th-grader in the district. “You need to pay these teachers what they deserve! Your games are hurting these kids, parents and teachers.”
Hawkins had had enough. Tears in her eyes, she gave a piece of paper to her mother, Lynn Barksdale, a former teacher, who crossed the picket line and handed in Hawkins’ resignation.
“Only teachers know what it’s like to have your heart beat on the outside of your body, beat on the classroom desk,” Hawkins said. “Only teachers know the pride that comes watching students rise to levels they never dreamed possible.
“I never thought in a million years that this day would come … but I cannot do this anymore.”
Hawkins still plans to leave the district, and she’ll be released from her contract after the school fills her position.
“I’m done,” she said late Thursday. The school, she said, still hadn’t given a satisfactory answer to her most pressing question: Why did teachers have to fight so hard for respect in the first place?