West Coast teachers see support for better pay

Shift in public sentiment on value of educators

SEATTLE — Fights over teacher salaries and working conditions are escalating along the West Coast, emboldened in part by the momentum from widespread teacher strikes in more conservative states.

The teachers in these blue states — with robust unions, the right to strike and legislatures that are generally more supportive — are tapping into a shift in public sentiment that supports better wages for teachers that came as a result of the “Red4Ed” protest movement that began earlier this year.

The latest disputes are particularly acute in Washington, a state that has infused at least $1 billion for teacher pay to resolve a long-running court battle. With students returning to school in the last few weeks, teachers in at least 18 public districts so far have voted to authorize a strike, gone on strike or settled their strikes in order to get pay raises.

“We saw everywhere from Arizona to West Virginia standing up for fair wages. Now that it’s coming to Washington state, we don’t feel isolated. We know we have the support of our local community,” said Connie Vernon, an elementary teacher in the Washougal School District in southwest Washington, where a nine-day walkout ended Thursday.

Rich Wood, spokesman for the state teachers’ union, said local bargaining units at two-thirds of the state’s 295 school systems have sought to renegotiate salaries.

In California, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District also voted last week to authorize a strike, although a walkout isn’t imminent.

The union and district in the nation’s second-largest school system have failed to reach an agreement on pay raises, smaller class sizes and other issues. Both sides have filed charges against the other, and a state mediation session is scheduled Sept. 27.

The momentum earlier from teacher protests in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado and Arizona has also carried into other kinds of actions, including an organized teacher hunger strike in Georgia and a major rally in North Carolina.

Except for Colorado, all of those states have “right to work” laws, which limits the ability for teachers to strike. Teachers there instead scheduled widespread “walkouts.” In West Virginia, teachers won a 5-percent raise even though they lacked collective bargaining rights and had no legal right to strike.

Michael Hansen, an education policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said the teachers’ cause is undoubtedly helped by the political dynamics shifting in the national conversation about teacher value.

As the protest movement moves from fiscally-conservative red states without much labor power, Hansen said momentum has shifted to more union-friendly blue states where pay and cost of living are substantially higher.

“They sort of feel like a tipping point has been crossed,” Hansen said. “Strategically, if you’re going to advance and advocate for more teacher pay, this is the time.”