Cynthia Nkeze A lot of the information out there is about pay, while we want fair pay for the work we do, that’s not what our greatest problem is. There’s issues around teacher evaluations, student testing, around caseloads for our ESA’s. These people, psychologists, nursers, mental health counselors, there’s not enough in our schools. They’re overworked and underpaid and the students end up not getting services. ESA caseloads are a really important issue that needs to be dealt with. Student testing is crazy. You would think that as teachers, of course we want our students to be tested to know what our students know, but the tests have nothing to do with what we teach the students. If we don’t teach the students to the test then they don’t past the test and when we teach to the test then we don’t actually impart knowledge on those kids. We are not saying students should not be tested, but the district should not add on to the required test that the state is already given. Many districts are not doing the extra tests but Seattle is insisting on having these extra tests. They then have those test results tied to teacher evaluations which is also part of the problem. We want these kids to get knowledge, not just be tested. We don’t want our students to be tested so much. Teaching is not a job, it’s a vocation. You can’t be in this profession because you want to make money.