The bike bus became the “strike bus” this morning as hundreds of Portland Public School students and their families from five schools joined a ride to show support for teachers who’ve been on strike since November 1st.
While the massive, moving picket line stretched many city blocks and bolstered weary strikers at schools along the way, it was also for the kids. As schools across Portland have started bike buses to get kids to school, many of them have had to do without that fun, active, and social outlet for the past 10 school days.
“I miss my friends. PPS, do the right thing!” read a sign taped to the back of a bike trailer.
This morning’s ride started at Richmond Elementary School in southeast Portland. Richmond PTA President Oom Marquardt told BikePortland it was part of their efforts to make sure kids have some sort of structured activity every day (today is the tenth day schools have been closed). “Usually we have the bike bus in the mornings, so we joined with other schools to join forces and have more impact,” said a beaming Marquardt as she surveyed the huge crowd that had assembled in front of the school.
Glencoe Elementary School PTA President Rob Galanakis helped organize the ride. “Seeing hundreds of people of all stripes and backgrounds showing up to support our teachers, schools, and communities — it was moving and inspiring for me,” he shared with BikePortland. “And more importantly, for our striking teachers.”
At the start of the ride in front of Richmond School, there was a band playing (a version of Johnny Cash’s “I walk the line”), boxes of free donuts and coffee, pro-teacher signs attached to bikes and backs (one young girl’s sign read, “Hot! Cold! Rats! Mold! This is getting really old!”), and Portland’s favorite clowns Olive & Dingo were on hand to make balloons and keep things cheery.
Once the ride shoved off, the size of the group became evident. I estimated about 500 people on bikes as the group spread across the entire street for many blocks on a four-mile loop. The route stopped at four schools along the way, picking up dozens of riders at each one. As the group passed Franklin High School, cheers erupted from picketers standing on the sidewalk.
As music blared from bike-mounted speakers, the joy emanating from riders was impossible to miss. “Joy is a form of resistance,” Alameda Elementary School Physical Education Teacher and bike bus organizer Sam Balto shared. “PPS management and the district will not steal our joy.”
Galanakis hopes the big crowd to get noticed by PPS and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. “I hope PPS takes note of the turnout and will offer our educators a better package, and I hope PBOT takes note of how many parents and kids will bike when the atmosphere is safe and supportive — so many families biking today told me they don’t ride nearly as often as they want because they don’t feel safe or confident on our streets.”
The ride was also a clear illustration of the renaissance of kids riding bikes to school — and how the proliferation of bike buses in Portland has made our community stronger.
— Want to start a bike bus at your school? Email Ride@BikeBusPDX.org for info and encouragement. Scroll down for more photos.
Like the “bike bus” in action & supporting teachers is always good. Supporting their union the PAT? Maybe not the best idea. I know that will ring hollow to most of the BP audience but maybe ask yourself this: Why do you think Governor Kotek & most Portland area state legislators have rebuked the PAT & PPS when they asked for more state $$$ to bail them out of this situation? This is a Portland problem that PPS & PAT are going to have to work out. A “bike bus” supporting teachers is not going to move the needle one inch.
Because the politicians failed the kids. Of course they’re going to blame everyone else. 30+ kid class sizes is absurd. I’m glad the PAT is pointing that out
I know it’s a stretch to ask most BP readers to consider for even 1 second that a union could be out of touch with fiscal reality but that’s exactly where we are with PAT. Even politicians elected with OEA/PAT campaign donations know this especially Governor Kotek. It’s a shame today’s bike bus couldn’t have focused more on the biking aspect and urging both sides to come together in compromise rather than being a PAT rally.
Even OL can read the room once in a while with today’s editorial calling out the PAT nonsense:
“But she (Governor Kotek) should directly acknowledge the harm the strike is causing students and families and publicly press the teachers union – which has long been a generous and loyal donor to her campaigns – to get real about the district’s budget”
The PAT has pointed out correctly how expensive PPS’s bloated administration is.
“From 2019-2024, the district’s general fund budget has reduced licensed staff by 121 employees, including teachers and counselors, while administration and professional, central office staff staff have grown by 149. Estimated general fund salary expenditures budgeted for 2023-24 for the additional administrative and central office staff are $15.4 million.”
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/pdxteachers/pages/1871/attachments/original/1695687296/A_Manufactured_Crisis_9.2023.pdf?1695687296
Useless administrators are proliferating and they cost more than teachers per person.
A conservative newspaper with an even more conservative editorial board is “calling out” a union? Shocking!
The money is there. PPS needs to lay off useless administrative bloat and get back to funding direct services to students.
“A conservative newspaper with an even more conservative editorial board”
LOL. I mean OL is practically Fox News for Portland. Seriously? When you’re so far to the left even common sense looks like Fox News.
I’ve also noticed no one from PAT or even here on BP is willing to go public and criticize Governor Kotek out of fear of where it may lead. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Oregon Education Association (OEA) donated nearly $1 million combined to her gubernatorial campaign. Apparently that money didn’t buy much influence in the Governor’s mansion in Salem. Funny that we can’t find a single progressive or Democrat who will go on record to criticize her.
Ha, I was gonna say the opposite. If the O looks like a bastion of socialism to you, it might because you’re extremely far right.
Please do tell Fuzzy Blue Line how you have such intimate knowledge of thoughts and motivations of PAT leadership? Maybe, just maybe, you’re making things up to fit your viewpoint?
Labor supporting pro-labor politicians!? There must be something nefarious afoot!!!
There is a distinct difference between reality and what you read in what conservative publications you frequent.
It’d be great if you could comment without constant gratuitous criticisms of BikePortland readers.
I’m thankful BP hasn’t gone out of it’s way to cancel cycling advocates who have a different take than the progressive talking points. I fully realize BP readers are likely 90% or more to the left of even AOC. Maybe I preface my comments because I see a lot of groupthink from commenters when politics and cycling mix. It’s gotten to the point where anyone who advocates for cycling but has a different viewpoint on how it mixes with politics is dismissed or cancelled by the left. Thankfully Jonathan has done a good job allowing different takes on issues to be posted on BP. I wonder what would have happened if I would have gone on yesterday’s bike bus ride with my child with a sign saying the strike has gone on long enough, it’s time for compromise. My guess is I would have been subjected to verbal attacks because I wasn’t promoting the PAT talking points which is sad.
I so very much wish this were true…
It’s not true. Just b/c I enjoy riding a bike doesn’t make me into some version of Che Guevara.
“I wonder what would happen if I went to a picket and told everyone they were being stupid and should capitulate to their employer”. Do you really have to wonder about that?
You would be subject to “verbal attacks” because you would be rallying in opposition to everyone else there – not because you aren’t promoting the PAT talking points.
Thank you Fuzzy. An easy-to-grab criticism trolls like to make is that BP is a bubble, or that we “censor” comments. But Jonathan sincerely wants the comments sections to be a place where different opinions can meet without descending into a gutter of noise.
Thank you for posting here.
“I fully realize BP readers are likely 90% or more to the left of even AOC.”
Im curious for you to spell that out a bit. What, specifically, are positions you would locate to the left of AOC that you see espoused here regularly, constantly (e.g., 90% of the time)?
I could name several examples but probably the biggest one is the complete lack of support for PHYSICAL PRESENCE of law enforcement to enforce traffic laws, impaired driving, etc from most (not all) BP commenters. Whether you want to call it “Defund the Police” or “ACAB” or whatever else it’s a prevalent view of many on this site. Is it 90% of BP readers? Impossible to tell. But I do know it’s a viewpoint only shared by the extreme far left across the country namely the AOC types which is why I used that analogy. It’s littered throughout the BP comments section in any article relating to Vision Zero or improving safety when someone mentions law enforcement.
“the biggest one is the complete lack of support for PHYSICAL PRESENCE of law enforcement to enforce traffic laws, impaired driving, etc from most (not all) BP commenters.”
I find that a rather selective way to parse the minefield of past and present police conduct in this country and state and city. If we look at just the PPB, they have now been subject to a consent decree imposed I think in 2008? by the (Federal) Justice Dept. because they were found to be so abusive to certain groups. Much more recently a slew of lawsuits have been filed (and many won) against the PPB for unreasonable use of force during the 2020 protests. We are all paying for those very expensive settlements.
The idea that something is rotten with the state of our police force isn’t in my view anything left or right, it is a deplorable and long standing fact we all have to find ways to deal with.
Now to your point above about attitudes here among bikeportland hoi polloi vis-a-vis traffic enforcement, I engaged with the usual suspects here in the bikeportland comments years before George Floyd was murdered and the PPB decided to pout and not do their jobs anymore over this issue. Back then the question was whether the PPB’s demonstrated inability to do their job in a manner free of racist bias was enough of a problem to intervene, demand accountability. My stance then was yes, not because I felt traffic enforcement wasn’t important but because if the only way we get that is with large helpings of racism then – No. Of course in a country/state/city I would be proud to pay taxes, the PPB would have acknowledged the problem, cleaned up their act, instituted reforms, invited independent monitors and oversight, etc. But none of that came to pass, and here we are. A dreadful state of affairs.
Your glib indictment of bikeportland commenters, as if attitudes about police (some of us may have held) is a reliable indication of a political bent*, or causal(?) is to me absurd. We could have far more interesting and productive conversions here if we kept track of the context, the history, the undeniably problematic facts that shape how things get done or fail to get done around here.
*just to make sure I am understanding you correctly, are you suggesting that someone/anyone to the right of AOC would be OK with continued racist policing here in Portland? Or what would someone from that side of the aisle in your view be advocating?
The murder rate went up about 100% in the last 3 years.
Do you have a better solution besides philosophy?
There are various reasons but the level of crime since Covid and George Floyd riots cannot be dismissed..
Pedestrian and traffic deaths are also way way up.
Something happened and your ramblings don’t explain it.
I am not ‘dismissing’ anything. I was responding to Fuzzy’s talk about police accountability and the extent to which his left-right axis helped us explain their problems.
Those recent (post COVID) trends are certainly con earning, and as far as I know not unique to Portland. Portland Police weren’t doing their jobs especially well before COVID, and also not during COVID, or really after.
If you are asking who is to blame for the rise in crime I think there are many possible answers. But if you are hoping to finger the left’s objections to racist policing I think you should keep looking. Blaming the left for police being MIA would, colloquially, be called shooting the messenger.
“the only way we get traffic enforcement is with large helpings of racism”
Fortunately, the evidence suggests that the traffic division, at least, is (was) able to conduct traffic enforcement without large helping of racism.
You said the same thing here back in 2019. Wasn’t persuasive then, and still isn’t.
https://www.opb.org/article/2020/11/27/portland-police-bureau-black-drivers-report/
You already know the answer, and if the data doesn’t support it, ignore the data.
Are you describing your MO?
Here is a conversation from 2019 here on bikeportland:
https://bikeportland.org/2019/04/12/comments-of-the-week-perspectives-on-more-law-enforcement-298274
comments are lively 😉
If that’s the biggest example of people here being far to the left, it’s a poor one.
First, “most” BP commenters may not support physical presence of law enforcement to enforce traffic laws, but when the subject comes up, there are typically MANY comments from people that do, and those comments get likes.
More importantly, your idea that that lack of support is equivalent to “defund the police” or–especially–“ACAB” is wrong. Many people, including many here, support traffic cameras, infrastructure changes, etc. because they believe those approaches to traffic safety will reduce the need for physical law enforcement, thus freeing law enforcement to do other things. That’s absolutely different from believing ACAB.
And remember, one group at the forefront of reducing police traffic enforcement here has been the Portland Police Bureau–hardly an “extreme left” bunch.
Of course you’ll believe BP commenters are much further left than they really are when you twist what they’re saying into something more extreme before you tally up how many of them are “extreme”.
I doubt that but at least it’s not a criticism.
There’s also huge amounts of debate in the comments because of lack of “group think”.
I see people getting “likes” and support for comments that certainly don’t seem like they’re coming from “the left”. Look at all the criticism against bike parking rules, as one example.
Your worst earlier comment in my opinion was this, because you not only say nobody “on BP is willing to go public and criticize Governor Kotek” you say why they do–which is impossible for you to know–and on top of that you say it’s “out of fear..”.
Notice you got several “likes” for your comment, hardly a sign of being dismissed, cancelled, group think, etc.
The number of people who have been cancelled by the left for having a “different viewpoint on how [cycling] mixes with politics” is zero. Unless “cancelled” here means people disagreed with them, a definition that is so capacious as to be completely useless.
Aw yes, just cut the Fat out.. The typical MAGA anti government scream…
The present funding is not there. the teachers will be out the rest of the year if “cutting the fat” is the budget option.
So simplistic.
Portland Schools need an entire new plan which is not going to help the 3rd graders who now have missed about 2 years of their school time.
A tragedy that Adults should be able to solve but not overnight.
In the meantime, a lot of parents who make the same money as the teachers will go broke paying for daycare…..
Get rid of every administrative person tomorrow and you are only 10% of meeting PAT demands. Also calling OL a “conservative” source is either bad faith gaslighting, or a joke/sarcasm lol. Unless one considers everyone to the right of Elizabeth Warren as ultra conservative!
“Also calling OL a “conservative” source is either bad faith gaslighting, or a joke/sarcasm lol.
People say the darnedest things!
Really?
Would you prefer corporate?
Either way nothing about the Oregonian or Oregonlive strikes me as deserving a moniker to the left of corporate or conservative. But you pretty clearly seem to think so, so why don’t you give us an example or two of the Oregonian’s politics that makes your point?
https://projects.oregonlive.com/publishing-prejudice/modern-impact
&
https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/caseconsortium/casestudies/37/casestudy/www/layout/case_id_37_id_457.html
Interesting stuff.
Obviously if the chief editor was racist in 1904, the OL is still a bigoted and conservative institution 120 years later!
That is a cheap shot. The first article I linked to was about the *Contemporary Impact* of the paper’s Racist History. No one is saying that because it was racist a hundred or even thirty years ago it (automatically) still is, and the fact that they commissioned and printed that series of articles is certainly to their credit.
But the implication of your silly comment—that this all happened 100 years ago—doesn’t advance this conversation.
OL/The Oregonian are conservative – just not strictly along the Democratic/Republican axis you seem to be familiar with. Almost every legacy newspaper – the Oregonian, the New York Times, the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune (the list goes on) – at one point in time was on the more conservative/businessman/capital side of their local media ecosystem. They almost universally maintain that ideological slant. When someone calls that “conservative” they are being accurate. At various points in time, the business/capital folks align themselves with varying degrees of social liberalism or conservatism, but they never stray very far from the financial interests of the banker, land owner, financier, and industrial magnate class.
I would say that Oregon (along with California and Washington) has a capitalist class that generally aligns itself with socially progressive causes – as long as they don’t have to foot the bill to pay for them. Does this mean they are less conservative in the economic sense? No, not really.
I would agree OL is corporate and caters to the power brokers and wealthy interests. If anything that use social issues as a smoke screen to win over us common folks.
The PPS teachers have been infinitely patient. This is their first strike ever, in what, 100 years?
I remember when our own kids were in grade school in the 1990s, and contract negotiations included a teachers’ compromise of agreeing to work ten days without pay so that school would not shut down early that year. Not many people would be willing to do that.
Just because teaching, like nursing, or social work, or other professions that are a ‘calling’, is done primarily by people who truly care about what would go missing if they strike, it does not mean they should have to continue to accept conditions that make it very difficult to do their jobs.
As far as ‘fiscal reality’ goes, it should not have taken 10 days of teachers striking and kids out of school for the state to look at the numbers and make them available publicly and to PAT. That information should have been there from day one of negotiations – January of this year.
And the argument that ‘The money is not there.’ should be met with how to get the money there, not ‘We are broke, and there is nothing we can do about it. You have to keep working with what we have.’ PPS administration and PAT should be working together as allies to secure the funds they need, not as adversaries.
Watch here to find out What Teachers Make.
Go Portland Teachers! Stay Strong! Demand what our kids, and our city deserve!
I’m with you, Betsy. PPS admin thought they could stonewall teachers and wait them out. Surprise! – teachers decided they had had enough.
Every teacher I know buys student supplies out of her/his own pocket – including food for hungry students! These employees have gone way beyond for far too long, and they have had enough. The district can find the money to pay them a living Portland wage.
Everyone know “how to get the money there” — the state has to provide more, and they’ve said they won’t. More money is not something PPS can do on its own, and PPS and PAT have taken the obvious step of jointly asking the state for more.
If we’re going to pay teachers more, Kotek and the legislature need to step up. And if they step up for Portland, all the other districts in Oregon are going to ask for more too, so I can understand why they’d be reluctant.
> supporting teachers is always good.
> Supporting their union the PAT? Maybe not the best idea.
All PPS teachers are unionized, PAT has 4500 members, 99% of the 93% who voted, voted to strike. This leaves a couple dozen teachers in all of PPS who voted against the strike. The union, unlike PPS administration, is democratically elected and operated. Maybe you should talk to the teachers, who are all union members, who have been out there picketing every school day since Nov 1, and see how they feel.
Look, I want our kids back in school too. I agree the PAT is making some impossible asks during negotiation (we should remember that this is a negotiation, and an impossible ask is necessarily an unreasonable one). But PPS is putting the onus of 23 years of underfunding and mismanagement on our teachers (and students), instead of sharing the sacrifice. They cut 70 teaching positions last year, and no administration. The union would absolutely take more symbolic alternatives, but PPS is throwing up their hands. This is not the basis for a constructive relationship.
Nice to hear from someone who has been talking to actual teachers. It’s too easy to dismiss people you don’t know.
What did you do to move the needle today?
Because Kotek and the legislators are the primary ones to blame here. They are two-faced politicians, claiming that they support the teachers, while doing nothing to actually boost state spending levels to actually get the teachers the raises they need, or the class sizes down. PPS is admin-heavy for sure, but even gutting all of the unnecessary admin won’t be enough to pay teachers a competitive wage.
Pruning admin might not suffice, but it would be a token of goodwill and shared sacrifice.
Supporting PAT is how you support teachers. There is no other way, they are literally the representation of the teachers as a group. So what rings hollow is saying supporting teachers is always good but not PAT.
I’m sorry I didn’t know about this—I definitely would have joined!
What a striking display of support for our teachers
I see what you did there.
I support our teachers but neither the PAT nor PPS administration. It’s time for COMPROMISE. It’s time to get our kids back in school. This long of a strike after having one of the longest school COVID shutdowns in the country is unconscionable.
Glad some kids got some exercise. Too bad it wasn’t at recess.
PPS could always put forward a serious proposal. PPS engaged in bad faith bargaining for months without putting serious proposals on the table, so here we are.
PPS is accountable to the tax-payer.
Considering what an abysmal job PPS admin is doing generally, I don’t think they are accountable to anyone.
solidarity with unions indirectly benefits you too, unless you’re so independently wealthy that you don’t need to work
If you really cared about the kids, you wouldn’t be encouraging teachers to accept the ridiculous offer being made by PPS. Kids do not benefit by being crammed 30+ to a classroom
PAT just gave up on class caps, now they just want more money for “overages”. More evidence that It’s not about the kids, it’s about the $$$$.
https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2023/11/portland-teacher-strike-union-makes-big-concession-withdrawing-proposal-for-capping-class-sizes.html
Good forbid they be compensated for doing more work.
If it was about the kids and PAT’s #1 priority was limited class sizes, why was class size the first thing they caved on? They couldn’t care less about class size so long as they’re paid more on top of the pay increase they’re already looking for.
If you support teachers but don’t support PAT, no you don’t.
Sorry but that’s a false narrative. There is a significant percentage of PPS teachers that are NOT supportive of how PART has run this strike (at least amongst my kid’s teachers)
99% of Portland teachers voted to strike, and all Portland teachers are members of the union. If you don’t support the union while they strike, you are not supporting teachers – you’re undermining them.
Wrong. You can be 100% for the teachers but 0% for the actions and tactics of their Union leadership.
My work has a union, and the leaders are only interested in getting more bodies to pay dues so they can spend it on questionable things, mostly at benefit to themselves, not the membership.
I support all teachers I know as individuals, certainly wanting the best for students. I don’t support the teacher’s “union”, the national antagonist they have come here to create conflicts not solutions, nor the idealistic pipedream of demands the PAT has brought forth given current economic conditions.
To be fair I’d endorse reallocating the PCEF and MultCo’s share of JOHS to pay teachers more and hire new ones!
Talk to your governor and state legislators. Without state-level changes to the way we fund schools, we can’t just use local money to make our schools better. Taxes from Portland are taken away and given to the poorer parts of the state, but we suffer in our higher cost of living area with the state spending a fixed amount on each student. We need change now.
PCEF is one big slush fund. Did you see how Portland just decided to throw $20 million into air conditioners for schools from the PCEF.
Go figure!
We can’t even afford to have PBOT leaf sweep all the city, my house is 2 blocks outside of the leaf sweeping zone, yet we are sitting on this massive war chest for “PCEF” that leaders admit isn’t even focussed on energy efficiency or reducing CO2.
Nathan, you just wrote:
Why would you say that? It’s utterly false. Reducing GHG and improving energy efficiency are some of the key reasons PCEF exists and they clearly say so. Disagreeing with others is welcome, as our different perspectives and opinions. But please don’t use this platform to spread falsehoods. Thanks.
Jonathan, 1 million dollars of PCEF funds were used to remodel the offices of Street Roots. Is this really to help reduce GHG? In my opinion, PCEF has become a political slush fund to give out tax $$$ to favored organizations.
You didn’t address my concern about sticking to facts, but I’ll assume you read it and understand that I’m serious.
About the Street Roots grant. The big thing about PCEF – maybe bigger than the climate focus itself — is that it was created to help the most vulnerable people fight impacts of climate change. Black/brown/indigenous people and homeless people are all most vulnerable and will be hit first and worst as shit continues to hit the fan. Street Roots has a proven track record of amplifying voices of marginalized people and it is a trusted, vetted media outlet. Access to news and information is an important part of fighting climate change – especially for the folks Street Roots is able to connect with.
I’m not here to defend Street Roots or PCEF, you need to ask them your questions. I’m just trying to add some context so that maybe we can get beyond the superficial bullshit and address differences of opinion in a way that’s more productive than just talking trash about PCEF or Street Roots — both of which are totally uncalled for IMO based on the records of both organizations AFAICT.
Using that stretch of logic one could justify giving PCEF funds to nearly anyone for nearly anything. Almost any nonprofit, community group or club could somehow say their actions reduce climate change. Most Brown, Black, low income and vulnerable people would appreciate their purchases at Walmart, Winco and Fred Meyer to be 1% cheaper rather than for Street Roots to have nice office chairs.
Sure. Any org can ask for the funds. But PCEF has to say “yes.” That’s how it works! That’s what happens when you organize, get something passed, and do the work it takes to be in the position PCEF is in.
Interesting, most of the POC I know would be highly insulted to think they were being classified as “most vulnerable.”
Of course they aren’t big fans of the white people telling them how they need “saved” or how one can only “save” them by doing performative woke theater.
It’s amazing what one learns when you ask POC people, not just judge them because they are POC or what woke whites tell us.
SolarEclipse,
This has nothing to do with me. My statement is a fact, not an opinion. And another thing that I think gives PCEF considerable credibility is that it was created by POC, is currently led by a POC, and has a committee made up of POC who decide what gets funded.
Tbh while knowing that climate change is real and is overall bad, one could also evaluate that the our communities most “vulnerable” stand to gain from climate change, at least here in the PacNW. Predicted milder winters certainly is a relief for those living outdoors or unable to pay their heating bills, also a longer growing season puts negative pressure on food pricing.
Obviously the “vulnerable” in Arizona and Texas have some major worries come summer, but the PCEF isn’t funding these people.
Wow! I haven’t yet heard this grifting scheme yet. Shouldn’t the JOHS be money rolling this one? Think this is worse then the $500K spent to build the roof top garden “safe space” for LGBTQIA2 persons of color atop a privately owned yoda studio. At least the garden involved actually plants and creating a green roof that can reduce cooling load in the summer and plants use CO2!
Jonathan my apologies as i could have bad information but my current understanding came from the Willamette Week. Aside from talking about how grants are awarded not often focused on efficiency and CO2 reductions, it also analyzed how green and climate related grants are evaluated as $/Ton-CO2. While nationally programs are often evaluated as viable for being in the 10’s to 100’s, many programs being funded by PCEF are in the 1000’s if intangible impact on emissions.
Perhaps wrong but i considered WW a reliable source for such introspection.
https://www-oregonlive-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.oregonlive.com/environment/2023/09/will-massive-clean-energy-fund-take-portland-to-its-climate-goal-no-and-thats-not-its-objective.html?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&outputType=amp&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17002604831918&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oregonlive.com%2Fenvironment%2F2023%2F09%2Fwill-massive-clean-energy-fund-take-portland-to-its-climate-goal-no-and-thats-not-its-objective.html
Yes i was shocked too reading that reducing GHG and improving energy efficiency seemingly wasn’t a primary focus. Given this the reason i voted “Yes” for the measure…
Nathan, you obviously don’t know how employment works. Individuals who try to negotiate with employers have no leverage. Only by banding together as a union can they have any leverage with a huge employer like PPS.
Some employees have considerable leverage with their employers, depending on their skills and knowledge. People who are easily replaced have much less. I have actually had much better luck negotiating with employers than I have convincing my union to fight for my particular concerns.
If this is about the kids, why didn’t they use the time from June when the contract expired to get a deal struck? Why walk out in November making it as inconvenient as possible for the students and parents? Why not do a work to rule action, come in teach the classes but nothing over and above that, no extracurriculars? Yeah it’s for the kids,
The union tried to negotiate but PPS admin dragged their feet – a common tactic of employers who don’t take a strike threat seriously until it is upon them. The union called the district’s bluff and I’m glad they did.
I’m glad I don’t have kids in PPS.
When the legislature provides better funding for our schools next term, the PPS strike will be why. If our teachers decided to not strike, if they decided to, say, just quit and go elsewhere, and abandon our kids and public school system, we’d have no way to correct course. We’d continue to bleed out. Instead, they are standing up for systemic change (I would encourage you to actually talk to some teachers on the picket line).
We don’t get, and have never gotten, things like better labor conditions or public funding just by asking. It has historically required some group to suffer. Our kids are suffering due to insufficient public education funding and poor administration. Now they’re suffering by not being in school.
We shouldn’t have to martyr our kids for public education. We shouldn’t have to martyr anyone for safe streets. But that’s what ends up sparking change.
*** Editor: removed a few f-bombs and other inflammatory language ***
What is most concerning to me is the amount of children that don’t care, don’t know what the fuck, or don’t agree. All of which are just fine. They are opinions and kids can have em too! But a couple weeks ago I was on the MAX orange line heading to work when the train got inundated with protesters! Which was rad to see such unity… But truly awful to see the kids asking why they are going to go do this, and even more awful to see parents that are part of my generation, outright lie to their kids and tell them that they “had” to be there essentially. And the pair of kids that were trying to get their parents to hear that “cool, we support you and everyone doing this…… But we don’t, and we don’t appreciate being forced into doing it!” One parent immediately refused to accept that they forced their kids, and when one kid asked to go home…. That parent told them they were “supposed” to be doing the “right thing” and not to disobey. I rode that MAX well past my stop and across the drink just to hear how the masses were feeling………. When folks used to protest back in the day, it seemed like there weren’t so many […]. A lot of people protesting are dolts, and don’t understand the issues. Many kids loved the fact that they weren’t in school, but an equal number were very vocal about them not understanding the issue, or disagreeing with it entirely. I just find it hard to stomach when ya know a bunch of these parents and protesters don’t give ah shit about anyone else’s opinion. […] … I even tried to get some info from 3 different folks… All of which told me to educate myself! Hahahahaha! […] I live in the AK bush and visit every now and then. So from the outside looking in…. […] Get yer fellow foot soldiers on the same page, and have a plan of action! Organized and informed masses are an incredibly intimidating thing to witness. But this. This here. That was a disgrace to see. Many were in the right, but too many were in the wrong and unwilling to either discuss or simply ignore antagonism. It sucks to see such a worthy to me cause be absolutely ruined by a few […]. Get yer shit together Portland! You were such an incredible place for EVERYONE to come and be in good intellectual company… And now it’s a tattered veil of privilege, racism, “better than thou’s, and misinformation. Whoa!
Cool to come up with a novel way to get something done… But c’mon […] …. Do […] better so our […] educators don’t have to have parents making them look like […] idiots! […]! […]. Yea.
I’m really torn on the ethics of engaging children to support the strike. OTOH, this may be a really important demonstration of a family’s values and an opportunity for kids to engage with broader systemic issues. I wouldn’t want to argue that no one under 18 should be exposed to or participate in political issues, because every stance–even so-called neutrality–is taking a stance, and engaging children to think for themselves and to discuss values is a critical part of education. OTOH, it feels a little unfair to put cute kids up there saying “we love our teachers” to endorse PAT specifically. Of course kids identify with their trusted teachers more than the distant administration, but do they support or understand the specifics of the PAT proposals? I also appreciate the comment on this thread that if 99% of teachers authorized the strike, maybe we should trust the supporting teachers means supporting PAT.