Families with children in Seattle schools may soon be hit with yet another strike, this time from school bus drivers.  Federal reports show a child’s public education is more likely to be disrupted by a strike in Washington than in any other state.  Private schools and charter schools don’t have strikes.

Superintendent Nyland usually goes easy on strikes called by executives of the powerful WEA teachers’ union.  On the first day of school in 2015, the union shut down all of Seattle’s 98 schools, throwing the lives of 53,000 children and their families into disarray.   Although teacher strikes are illegal in Washington, Superintendent Nyland proposed no legal action at all against the WEA union.

In contrast, Superintendent Nyland is coming down hard on First Student, the District school-bus contactor, because it involves a much smaller union representing private-sector workers.  He is threatening a lawsuit and $1.2 million per day in fines if bus drivers decide to strike.

Legal action, even if proposed, would mean little during a WEA teachers’ strike.  WEA executives take some $34 million a year out of teacher paychecks.  And WEA executives are much harder on their own members than Superintendent Nyland is on the union.  The WEA says that any teacher who doesn’t pay will be fired.

Superintendent Nyland says a bus driver strike would disrupt the “lives and educations” of Seattle students.  His tough reaction against a smaller union illustrates a double standard at work.

The WEA generally gets the kid-glove treatment from administrators because the union is perhaps the most powerful political player in the state, and a major campaign contributor to the governor, many state legislators and school board members.

The WEA union is the main defender of the status quo and the most active lobby against education reform.  Currently, the WEA is working to close every charter school in the state, denying access to these popular public schools to 2,400 families.

In contrast, the bus-drivers union is not a major player in Olympia or in most school board elections.  Superintendent Nyland can afford to be much tougher on them.

Tracking the endless controversies that plague our public education system is exhausting.  Children should be able to go to public schools without fear of being subjected to constant in-fighting among competing factions of adults.  Private schools, charter schools, homeschooling, and online education are free of these disturbances.  No wonder family choice alternatives in education are so popular.

The best way to reduce conflict and strikes is to give parents more choices in directing the education of their children (for examples, see our new study, “Overview of public school choice programs”).  When parents have choices, they can guide their children away from systems that engage in conflict.  And, of course, knowing parents have choices will encourage the grown-ups in the schools to avoid starting conflicts in the first place.