Today, the Seattle Times reports that Lisa Brackin Johnson, president of the Kent teachers' union, has led Kent teachers into striking against their students. 

This strike reveals the deep-seated distrust that teachers have for the centralized bureaucracies that run their schools.  If principals were in charge of their school budget and staffing decisions, teachers would feel that they are connected to, and part of, the important budget decisions that affect them, including the number of students assigned to their classrooms.  In middle and high schools, this number is known as student load.  If principals were in charge of their budgets and student loads on teachers, the chemistry teacher mentioned in the Seattle Times article, Michael Imbruglio, would not have a student load of 150 one year and a student load of 70 the next.

This strike is not only illegal, but entirely unnecessary.  Washington's schools receive over $10,000 per student from all state, federal and local sources.  Each class of 20 students receives $200,000, which should allow their principals, not a statewide single salary scale, to determine teacher pay, to pay the best teachers up to $100,000, and to take the rest to run the school.   

As for the class size complaint so often heard in these strikes, this link from the OSPI website shows that the state funds enough certificated instructors to provide class sizes of 18 students.  Too many teachers are simply not teaching, instead drawing salary by reviewing curriculum, administrating, or fulfilling some other less essential function.  This link from the OSPI website shows that out of a total of 103,614 public school employees, less than half, or 49,146, are actual elementary or secondary school teachers.   

The F-195 Budget Overview and School Apportionment forms for the Kent School District(you can find these forms for your own school district here, too) reveal, respectively, that the Total Staff Count of certificated and classfied employees for the Kent School District is 2715.  Of that total, only 1238 are funded through the basic apportionment from the state, elementary and secondary school teachers.   Kent is responsible for the education of 25,499 kids.  By dividing 25,499 by 1238 teachers, you will find that Kent can provide classroom sizes of 20 students. 

Decentralizing budget and staffing power away from central bureaucrats to the local school manager, the school principal, is the best way to re-establish trust and genuine collaboration between principals and teachers, the only people who know the names of the students and can tailor the schooling they provide to the needs of their students.  

Schools receive ample funding from the state.  It is simply being wasted to comply with mandates from Olympia, mandates from school district bureaucrats and other wasteful management practices.  This does not excuse illegal, irresponsible, and unnecessary strikes which hurt school children, led by union leaders such as Karin Brackin Johnson.