booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

Northwest region members of the Washington Education Association rally in Everett on February 13, 1990. WEA photo.
other programs to improve education, including smaller classes in the first three grades. He
also championed a plan that made many educators nervous – open enrollment. However,
“Learning by Choice” won the Legislature’s approval. It was hailed by parents, who gained
the right to send their children to any school where there’s room. President George
H.W. Bush borrowed several ideas from Gardner’s Schools for the 21 st Century program
to launch “American 2000,” his own campaign for innovative education. Year-round
schools, team teaching and grouping students by ability rather than age were among the
innovations explored by Washington state educators. “Good ideas are at work out there in
the state of Washington,” Bush told reporters after a White House meeting with Gardner,
Lt. Gov. Joel Pritchard and some Washington educators.
Welfare programs that focused on the needs of children received another $70
million in the governor’s proposed supplemental budget. He was also reprising his gas tax
plan, advocating a 5-cent hike over the next three years to raise $1 billion by 1995 for the
state’s neglected highways and bridges.
The Northwest Region of the Washington Education Association announced a oneday
strike – an “Awareness Day” – on Feb. 13, 1990, to protest the failure of the governor
and lawmakers to meet their demands for “a real raise” and smaller classes. The other
regions and local district WEA affiliates agreed to mobilize on the same day, some by
refusing to report for work, others by leaving early or staging after-school rallies. In all,
25,000 teachers around the state participated, including 7,000 who assembled at Everett’s
Memorial Stadium on a picture-postcard winter day: Sparkling sunshine and a light
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