The Audacity of the Oregon GOP Calling Out Teacher Walkouts

Members of the Oregon GOP are calling it a “dangerous precedent” — this notion of teachers, paid to do a job, walking out in protest.

Considering this talk of a “dangerous precedent” is coming from the members of the party that this year convened the longest-ever legislative walkout in Oregon history, we are amused.

Some Republican members of the Oregon legislature plan to introduce legislation aimed at barring teachers from taking part in strikes during school days. Rep. Jamie Cate (R-OR11) told the Oregon Capital Chronicle that the teachers’ effort to increase pay and address dangerous deferred maintenance in Portland Public Schools involves “far-left activists repeatedly putting politics first and students last.”

Another unpleasant irony of this situation is that this is the same party that’s been unabashed in its support of “school choice,” which erodes the public school system in favor of issuing public dollars to private and religious schools – schools that, by and large, pay teachers far less than public school teachers earn.

As of last year, Oregon public school teachers ranked #13 among states in teacher pay, earning an average of $70,402, according to 2021-22 school year data from the National Education Association. This in a state where this year, the cost of housing is 41% higher than the national average, where transportation costs are 17% higher and groceries are 7% higher, according to the 2023 Cost of Living Index from the Council for Community and Economic Research. Aiming for a level of pay that helps public school employees weather these costs is not political.

Nationally, elementary and secondary public-school teachers earned an average of $62,190 in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, while their private-school counterparts earned $48,380. If higher pay attracts more talent, it would seem that public schools still have an edge – and a powerful tool in the toolbox of our hard-working educators is the right to collective bargaining. The fact that members of the Oregon GOP hope to claw back the rights of teachers to advocate for themselves tells a lot about where their priorities lie – and we don’t wager it’s actually with students and families.

What we are seeing now is yet another negative effect of legislative walkouts. When your party spends the better part of a legislative session – and portions of others – not showing up for work, it makes it difficult to weigh in with any credibility about the organized and planned walkouts of another sector of workers.

We have no doubt that the present situation for parents and families in Portland Public Schools is dire. If local negotiations between Bend-La Pine Schools and Bend Education Association continue to drag out, this could be the reality for local families, as well. As always, the families least able to weather the disruptions to work, routines and educational attainment will be the low-income families; those led by a single adult and those with learning or other challenges. Public schools are uniquely set up to support these families, and when that support system is disrupted, it had better be for a good reason.

When we compare the reasons for a district-wide educator walkout versus the reasons given by the Oregon GOP for not showing up to work, we’ll say the teachers offer far better reasons.

This article appears in Source Weekly November 23, 2023.