Bellevue strike threat illegal, unnecessary

State and local public employees, including teachers, have no legally protected right to strike.

Teachers in the Bellevue School District know this. Nonetheless, they plan to launch a strike on Tuesday. Their union is emboldened by a creative, incorrect interpretation of state law.

Attorney General Rob McKenna has been clear on the illegality of strikes by public employees. Teachers argue that since the law doesn't explicitly name teachers, that profession is excluded from the ban. That's silly. Taxpayers pay teacher salaries. They are public employees.

Perhaps it is time to fill in a missing part in the law: penalties. A gutsy state Legislature should include fines or some other enforcement mechanism in the law.

Strike threats are educational blackmail Bellevue families do not deserve. This is not the way to repay a long record of voter-approved levies and a parent volunteer corps other districts envy.

Teachers in this district are among the highest paid in the state. The new contract offer includes a 5.1 percent increase for the coming year. The average teacher's salary in Bellevue rose 14.5 percent between 2004-05 and 2007-08. Pay starts at $39,800 for a beginning teacher with a bachelor's degree and up to $76,500 for a teacher with a doctorate and 15 years experience.

Bellevue teachers are threatening to strike just as the district is cutting $4.8 million from its budget. Moreover, the wrong government entity is being threatened. The state sets teacher salaries; local districts kick in extra for things such as planning time and extra duties.

Bellevue's use of Curriculum Web, which is a common curriculum, is another issue angering teachers. Teachers believe the curriculum is a challenge to their autonomy in the classroom. It is not. Districts have a responsibility to set curriculum and instruction. Parents deserve assurance that academic quality moves seamlessly from classroom to classroom.

This is not an issue to strike over. Bellevue is one of the top-performing districts in the state. This stature comes because of its fine teachers. It was wholly appropriate, then, that the district gave teachers a memorandum of understanding earlier this week agreeing to rely on teachers professional judgment to use the curriculum, modify it or substitute it.

Union leaders say the flexibility comes with a requirement that teachers submit alternative plans in advance for approval. Good. Educational standards are useless if they can be ignored without explanation or proof of an acceptable substitute.

This is a vulnerable time for Bellevue. Longtime superintendent Mike Riley left the district last year; an interim superintendent holds down the fort.

Negotiations continue throughout the holiday weekend. Teachers should be prepared Tuesday to concentrate on three R's: returning ready and refreshed.

The information in this editorial, originally published August 29, 2008, was corrected August 30, 2008. Bellevue School district teachers received a 5.1-percent cost-of-living adjustment. A previous version of the editorial stated an incorrect percentage.