The following was read by Tina Mahaney, president of the Bremerton Education Association, at the May 7 Bremerton School Board meeting. Mahaney called for the board to stand with teachers statewide against legislators.

“Good evening, friends of education. I am asking you to consider an unprecedented level of support for our public schools statewide, and particularly our communities’ children and educators.

As you well know, thousands of teachers across the state are engaged in rolling walk-outs, firing a warning shot to our lawmakers that we will do whatever it takes to get them to fully fund our schools. This should not be the teachers’ fight!! We cannot do this alone, yet we refuse to turn our backs on our kids. We need you, and we need our entire community to stand with us to demand the legislators do their job.

Educators are beyond frustrated after multiple years of neglect. When our state was in an economic slump, we waited patiently, and continued to do our best for our communities despite new curriculum, new testing, a new evaluation system, and disgruntled public opinion.

When did teachers stop being revered by their communities? Possibly when our communities felt the system was no longer meeting the needs of their children and they needed to blame someone? The finger should be pointed at our legislature! Again, educators led the charge to make things right for our kids, and much of the public responded by supporting and approving initiative after initiative; a COLA and I-728 Class Size support in 2000, and most recently I-1351. And, what we believed would be the final straw… a coalition, joined by school districts across the state, sued the state legislature for failure to adequately support our schools…and won!!! Even this was not enough… instead, the Initiatives have been dismissed or have gone unfunded and the Supreme Court order to fully fund our schools has virtually been ignored by the legislature! Who gets hurt? Our schools, kids, educators and communities.

You may have heard… We are heading into a teacher shortage… Soon no one will be left to teach our kids. Why is that? Because our state and federal government have forgotten that our children are our most precious resource, our future. They are more interested in internal party control and special interest agendas than doing the true business of government; to build and support strong, safe, educated and successful communities, starting with their paramount duty… amply funding our schools! From toxic, unreliable testing, to tying state test scores to teacher evaluations, mandatory furlough days and elimination of Professional Development Days, pay and benefits that are actually causing many to take-home less than they received seven years ago, and state and federal regulations that have basically labeled ALL our schools as FAILING….We are done! IT’S TIME! If we don’t stand for our kids no one else will.

PLEASE understand this…educators are demoralized and exhausted. They often feel unsupported and unappreciated for the valiant efforts they make, day (and night) to provide solid opportunities for our kids. We just want to teach. Yet, if the legislature is unable or unwilling to fund our schools as the courts have ordered, educators will feel compelled to act.

We are asking you to be bold, to be leaders among your peers. Stand WITH us in the fight for full funding. In a conversation with our Superintendent, I was asked….but why strike? Can’t you do something else? My response….PLEASE, tell me what we can do that we haven’t already done. We have spent the last thirteen years talking to our local representatives, writing thousands of letters, making hundreds of calls, lobbying in Olympia, attending legislative town halls, and hosting local Educational Public Forums in an effort to help our communities understand the complexity and severity of the funding issue. Thousands of educators and their supporters have attended numerous rallies. We have lost training days because the legislature cut funding, and we’ve levied our communities at the highest levels in our state’s history, so THEY now bear a greater burden of our public school costs, which should have been the state’s obligation. We’ve sued the state! We have been patient, we have been understanding, we have been politically active and involved… We have done everything humanly possible in an effort to give our legislature some grace time during our economic slowdown… Yet our schools, kids and teachers continue to be ignored, set aside and disrespected. We can no longer be a part of this, and must stand up for our kids and our public schools. Our communities have spoken. Our voters have supported schools and teachers loudly and clearly… Now it is time for the legislature to do so. Amply funding our public schools is the state’s Paramount Duty… IT’S TIME!!!

Educators across the state, and especially right here at home, fervently urge you to step up your support of our schools by outwardly and publicly showing your support to our students and educators as they make difficult decisions and take drastic measures. Stand hand in hand WITH US to force our legislature to meet their Paramount Duty. More than ever, we need our schools to be fully funded. We can’t do this alone. We have waited long enough. NOW is the time!!!”