OPINION EDITORIAL

June 24, 2004

Students not to blame

Mike Throgmorton
Let's play the blame-game.

The subject for our game today is the Marysville teachers' strike. Prior to the start of this academic year, teachers in Marysville went on strike for a state-record 49 days, effectively delaying the start of the term until October 22. Since state law mandates 180-days of academic instruction to constitute a full academic year, the lockout has had the effect of pushing back the start of summer vacation until July 19th. So, without further ado, let us pose the all-encompassing question: "Who's to blame?"

Could we blame the striking teachers for not solving this problem soon enough to get classes in session (classes that they are being paid to teach with the tax dollars of the parents in the Marysville school district) and instead going on strike (illegally) at the expense of their students? Maybe.

Could we blame the Marysville school board for not taking legal action immediately when the teachers went on strike (illegally) and later turning around and hiding behind their shield of "it's the law" when the 180-day year extended into late July? Possibly.

Could we blame the Washington Education Association for claiming to be for the kids and then supporting and endorsing teacher strikes as a bargaining tactic at their expense? Probably.

Could we blame the Marysville Education Association for claiming that "only the school board has the power to make it happen" [get the schools going again] when they themselves were the ones who organized the strike? (See, even they play the blame-game). Most likely.

Could we blame the courts and the attorney general's office for not upholding soon enough the countless Washington state court rulings that prohibit teachers from going on strike? Definitely.

Could we blame the Accountability and Integrity for Marysville Schools (AIMS) parents' association for supporting the teachers who walked out of the schools that their kids were supposed to be in? How about Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson for failing to step in? How about Speaker of the House Chopp for shooting down legislation that would have prevented this from ever happening? For that matter, how about even Governor Locke? Of course!

Conspicuously missing from this list of groups and individuals potentially to blame are the innocent kids whose summer was cut short by the people whose example they are now emulating as they strike to get their summer vacation back. Unlike their teachers who went on strike and got away with it, however, the striking students are enduring both sunburns and suspensions for standing up for what they know is right. Marysville School Board President Vicki Gates would have us believe that the "extended summer" the kids in her district enjoyed last year was payment in full for having to stay in class two weeks after Independence Day, but the only reason that summer was "extended" was because of the illegal strike!

The truth is there are a plethora of pitfalls that come with this situation. What of the students whose families were planning on going on vacation (like the millions of other American families who do so after school gets out)? What about the students who were planning on trying to find summer work who are now behind their peers in the already miniscule teen job-market? What about the students who lost summer internships and academic scholarships in preparation for college? What about the students who very nearly lost their appointments to military academies (and hence might've had to pay $80,000-$100,000 dollars for a college education that would have otherwise been free!)?

It seems to me that too many people involved were concerned with everything and everyone except the students. Shame on the allegedly adult individuals who postponed the one and only thing that a kid looks forward to the whole year he or she is in school: the day they get out.

Let's face it folks, the students aren't the ones to blame here; they're just the ones taking the heat for it. I, for one, say the next time this happens, we ought to hand the dunce-caps out to somebody else and let the kids go play.

Mike Throgmorton is a student at Whitworth College in Spokane and a research assistant at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based policy research organization dedicated to free-market principles.

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Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org