3,000 teachers in Spokane hold 1-day strike; Tacoma teachers vote to stay in class

SPOKANE, Wash. -- About 3,000 teachers in the Spokane area are holding a one-day strike to protest the state Legislature's failure to increase school funding.

Wednesday's strike affects nearly 30,000 students in the Spokane and East Valley school districts.

Teachers' union members held a rally Wednesday morning at Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane.

They are picketing for one day not against their districts, but rather asking the state Legislature to decrease class size and provide better funding for schools as mandated by the state Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Tacoma teachers are protesting the state legislature's lack of progress on pay and class sizes by putting their after-school work on display.

The News Tribune reports Tacoma Education Association president Angel Morton says teachers are upset that the education funding special session in Olympia isn't producing results.

The group voted Tuesday to fill the plaza in downtown Tacoma on June 3 from 4-6 p.m. to show lawmakers how much work teachers do during the academic year after the last school bell rings.

Morton says they decided on this protest rather than adding to more than 60 walkouts that have happened across the state, calling it a work-in rather than a sit-in.