On Tuesday January 24th, Seattle Public School teachers and students were forced to leave school three hours early due to a negotiated furlough day.
In protest, the Seattle Education Association organized picketing events at a handful of prominent locations around town. The location closest to where I teach was at the five corners where I-5 motorists enter and exit and along a busy cross-town street running alongside Northgate Shopping Mall.
At most we had a hundred protesters not including the handful of small children who came with parents in support of their teachers. We occupied all five corners, braving forty degree weather and frigid pouring rain.
Personally I was disappointed in the turnout. There are at least six schools in that area with fifty to sixty employees so there should have been three times what there was. During that short school day I asked my fellow teachers if they planned on joining the protest, but all I got were excuses. I have a doctor appointment. I don’t want to stand out in the cold. I didn’t know it was happening (read your e mail). I guess many went home early, figuring it was a day off. I don’t know what it will take to get people out of their easy chairs and take an active role in their democracy. If having your hours and thus, pay slashed bit by bit doesn’t do it, I guess nothing will. It’s sad. Teachers, of all people, should be leading the example for people to get more involved. This furlough day landed just one day after we all returned to work after three days off because of the heavy snowstorm that blew through last week. The timing couldn’t have been worse. For middle and high schoolers, it’s also crunch week where they should be reviewing for finals.
But for those of us who did care enough to attend a protest, we rallied with sings saying Occupy Our Classrooms, Tax the Rich, Fully Fund Our Schools. Some brought children who held signs saying We Love Our Teachers, complete with little drawn hearts.
At one point an SUV full of teenagers pulled up and said something to one of the protesters. I encouraged them to pull over and join us. There was a parking spot right across the street. One of them made a flippant remark about needing to go home and smoke crack before the light changed and the driver sped off. But I guess if most the teachers don’t care, why should our youth?
As I stood on that busy corner I listened to teachers complain how they aren’t given enough materials to teach their lessons and express their frustration that those in the district who control the purse strings have little to no experience being in the trenches teaching the kids and therefore have little to no clue on how to best spend the money.
Our state, like most others in the union, faces a huge budget shortfall. But like all the other states, they refuse to force big business into paying their fair share of taxes to help fill that gap. Then there’s the initiative passed by voters in 2010 that mandates a two thirds majority in the legislature to raise taxes. This is crippling the legislative system as we have too many (Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings, for example) who believe education is not worth funding and look upon public educators as public enemy number one.
But I’d have to say that apathy is our worst enemy. We, the people, have the power to change what’s happening. If we value a good public education, then we need to make our voices heard. Of all those protesting as part of the Occupy Movement, it’s a small fraction compared to how many are effected by the budget hatchet job that’s happening all over the country. Legislatures are taking services away from the people. They’re taking away our jobs, our homes, but still, a large portion of us are sitting idly by and letting them do it. It’s a sad state of affairs when a few have to stand up for the rights of the many. We must all make our voices heard if we want to live in a democracy.
