By Tim Clifford

Highline teachers rallied on street corners throughout Burien and Des Moines along thousands of other teachers across Washington State on May 21.

“The legislature needs to fulfill their constitutional responsibility to amply fund education and they simply aren’t doing it. We are here to draw public attention to the fact that schools currently aren’t funded right now and we need to make sure that we’ve got adequate funding to help our kids have the best learning environments possible,” said Jeb Binns of the Washington Education Association.

On May 20 thousands of teachers participated in a walkout and rally that moved through downtown Seattle and ended at the Seattle Center, the largest teacher strike in the state’s history so far. The strike on May 21 was specifically for Highline teachers.

The protests have been a push by over 63 teaching districts to inadequate funds for classrooms and the legislature’s refusal to increase the pay for educators.

When asked what he would say to parents or passersby who felt that teachers shouldn’t strike Binns replied “Well, so far not doing anything hasn’t amply funded public education. So we need to stand up and just continue the pressure to let people know that public funding is amazingly important. And, we’re also making up the days, so we are making sure that kids still get their full 180 days of classroom instruction.”
Teachers and supporters gathered at numerous street corners across the district starting at 8:30 a.m. Wearing red HEA (Highline Education Association) shirts and picketing with signs that read “good schools require good funding, fund public schools” waved and encouraged honking at street corners.

“If judging from today’s reaction of people driving by is any indication overwhelming support from people coming by and waving and giving thumbs up and honking and smiling. I think our positive to negative ratio is about 500 to 1.”

Eventually the mass of teachers rallied at Moshier Park around 1 p.m. to finish their day.