Seattle students start school with teachers strike suspended
Source: AP
By PHUONG LE
SEATTLE (AP) — Yellow school buses rolled through Seattle's streets and noisy schoolchildren packed playgrounds again as thousands of students started the school year Thursday that was delayed by a weeklong teachers strike.
The walkout began Sept. 9 in Washington state's largest school district, its first in three decades, and was put on hold after the union and Seattle Public Schools reached a tentative contract agreement. The full union membership will vote on the deal Sunday.
The contract dispute marked a strategy shift by teachers nationwide to take on broader issues that promote the public interest, experts have said. The Seattle teachers union tapped into community protests over too much testing, not enough recess and concerns about racial disparity in discipline and student performance.
Educators also complained that the city's high-paid technology industry had priced them out of living in the city where they teach, especially since they had gone six years without a state cost-of-living adjustment. The district provided raises totaling 8 percent out of local levy money.
FULL story at link.
Students at walk to their classrooms on the first day of school at Concord International School, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, in Seattle. Thursday was the first day for students in the Seattle School District to begin classes for the new school year following a weeklong teachers strike. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/04750119757a44b0a73e76d5ca217010/seattle-students-start-school-thursday-strike-suspended
