School's Back On In Tacoma

After 8 days, teachers in Tacoma, Washington have ended their strike and classes will resume today.

Teachers in Tacoma, Washington, have voted to end their eight-day strike, meaning classes will resume Friday for 28,000 students, Tacoma school district spokesman Dan Voelpel said.

A lawsuit that the school district had filed against the teachers' union will be dropped, Voelpel said.

A tentative agreement was reached Wednesday. Contract talks between the school district and union had fractured over teacher pay, class size and how educators are transferred between schools.

In the deal that teachers accepted Thursday, according to Voelpel, class sizes will remain the same (the union had pushed for smaller class sizes); teachers will not face a pay cut (the district to cut pay by 1.35%); and a joint committee appointed by the district and union will determine how teachers are transferred.

This is the power that Ohio, Wisconsin, and other states are desperate to permanently remove from America's workers, government or otherwise.  Republicans are doing everything they can to gut public schools, because an ignorant public is more pliable for their purposes. Teachers have to fight for class sizes in 2011. Incredible.

Never forget the real goal of any GOP action is always to further permanent GOP power at the expense of 99% of Americans.