Seattle teachers authorize strike as school spending climbs and budget problems persist
Seattle families may once again be left wondering whether school will start on time.
Members of the Seattle Education Association voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to authorize a strike if the union and Seattle Public Schools (SPS) cannot reach a new contract. About 91% of voting members supported the authorization, giving union leaders the ability to call a walkout as the current contract expires Aug. 31. Classes for most students are scheduled to begin Sept. 2.
A strike is not inevitable, but Seattle parents have reason to take the threat seriously.
The last Seattle teacher strike, in 2022, delayed the beginning of the school year by five days. Four years later, families are once again facing the possibility of scrambling for child care, rearranging work schedules and watching their children lose classroom time because adults could not reach an agreement.
The current dispute includes disagreements over class sizes, workloads, special education staffing and compensation. It is also taking place while Seattle Public Schools faces significant financial problems of its own.
Those problems have persisted despite enormous growth in district spending.
Seattle Public Schools operated with a General Fund budget of about $453 million in 2005-06. Its current operating budget is approximately $1.35 billion, meaning annual district spending has nearly tripled in nominal dollars over the past twenty years.
The amount SPS spent on certificated (i.e. teacher) salaries was by far the biggest driver of the overall spending growth, increasing $340M over the last 20 years.
Yet SPS has been working to close an approximately $87 million budget gap heading into the new school year.
That financial reality should matter at the bargaining table. A school system that repeatedly spends more than it takes in cannot treat every negotiation as though additional commitments come without tradeoffs.
But there is another major difference between a potential strike today and the one Seattle families experienced four years ago.
This time, striking workers may be eligible for unemployment benefits.
Last year, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed SB 5041, allowing eligible Washington workers involved in a strike to receive unemployment benefits for up to six weeks. The new provisions took effect Jan. 1.
Washington had initially waived the normal job-search requirement for striking workers seeking unemployment benefits, but the federal government warned that the exemption was not allowed under federal unemployment rules, forcing the state to reverse course.
Even with that restriction, SB 5041 represents a significant change from the last Seattle teachers strike by reducing some of the financial pressure workers traditionally face during a prolonged walkout.
Future42 warned last year about the incentives created by the law as strikes kept schools closed in Evergreen and La Center.
Now that policy could become relevant in Washington’s largest school district.
It’s also worth remembering teacher strikes are illegal in Washington state, though there isn’t an enforcement mechanism behind it so the state generally just looks the other way.
There is an obvious imbalance here for families.
If educators walk out, eligible striking workers may eventually receive unemployment benefits. The union and district will continue negotiating. Political leaders will offer statements about the importance of reaching an agreement.
They are the ones who may need to find emergency child care, miss work or explain to their children why the first day of school has suddenly disappeared from the calendar.
SPS is a $1.35 billion school system already confronting another major budget gap. State lawmakers have simultaneously made it easier for eligible workers to weather a prolonged strike financially.
Seattle families already went through a strike four years ago, and they should not be the forgotten party in the middle yet again.