“Turning the Streets Into Our Classroom”: Vote for May Day Strike!
By Wednesday this week every school in Seattle will have held a union vote to decided if our Seattle Education Association (SEA) should go out on strike on May Day—International Worker’s Day—to demand full funding for education, to support our immigrant students, and to defend union rights.
I am voting yes!—and I hope that the rest of the educators join me in authorizing this walkout for the schools our students deserve.
Here in Washington State, our state Supreme Court ruled in the McCleary decision that our state legislature was in violation of the state Constitution’s “Paramount Duty” to amply provide for education. The court has fined the legislature and found them in contempt of court for failing to support public education. And yet we have seen our legislature continue to funnel money to the wealthiest corporations in our state, giving away billions in tax breaks to Boeing and maintaining tax loopholes for the rich. Washington State is one of only a few states without an income tax and ranks dead last with most regressive tax structure in the nation. The year 2017 was the final year that the state Supreme Court gave the legislature to fix the funding problem and it is clear that the legislature has no plans to start following the law anytime soon. 
We have tried emailing, calling and asking nicely for the legislature to follow the law and fund education. That hasn’t worked.
Now it’s time to show the collective power of labor. We held a one-day walkout two years ago as part of a rolling strike wave across the state to pressure the state legislature. That was an important action that raised awareness, brought families into the streets with teachers in a common struggle, and gave teachers a “Turning the Streets Into Our Classroom”: Vote for May Day Strike! | I AM AN EDUCATOR:
