Teachers in Seattle, Washington, the state's largest school district, will go on strike Wednesday. Seattle teachers haven't gone on strike since 1985.
The primary issue is pay, but as KPLU's Kyle Stokes told NPR's newscast unit, it's "pay with a twist.
"The school district wants to increase the length of the instructional day for students and the way that they propose to do this is to take away some of the time that teachers get currently to prepare for school before or after classes and use that to help lengthen the school day."
The 5,000 members of the Seattle Education Association also couldn't agree with the school board on the schedule of pay increases. The union wanted a 10.5 percent increase over two years, while the district stood close to its original offer of 9 percent over three years.
In addition, teachers challenged the district's standardized test regime — they wanted to see the amount of testing reduced and to have more input into which tests were selected.
The Seattle School Board voted on Tuesday to allow the schools superintendent Larry Nyland to take legal action against striking teachers if they refuse to return to work.
Wednesday was to be the first day of scheduled classes for Seattle's 53,000 students. Instead, the Seattle Education Association announced that its members will form picket lines at each of the the city's more than 100 public schools.
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