Teachers work for free

Special thanks to Todd Miller for this information.

 "As you probably know the legislature cut  our pay by 1.9% This equates to just over 3.5 days. All other state workers whose salaries were cut are taking forced furlough days to make up for their pay cuts. No pay, no work. Sounds simple doesn't it. 

As we all know teachers are special so we are being held to higher standard. The state is still requiring us to work our normal 180 day school year. They have mandated, that unless we can negotiate time off from our individual districts within the regular school year, we will work 3.5 days for free. Did you catch that? Three and a half days for free. They  could have reduced  the school year to make up for the cut, but a bill to do that  failed to pass the legislature. Who would want to look bad to the voters when they can just look bad to teachers?

You might have heard the the State Board of Education can issue waivers for a shorter school year. Well, they can't, at least not for this contingency.  To quote an e-mail the WEA received from the SBE, "The issue isn't really whether the SBE would grant waivers; the question is whether the SBE is authorized to grant such waivers...The Board's authority authority does not include granting of waivers to school districts as a way to manage salary reductions..."

Thank you WA State for working "hard" to provide the best education for our kids!