Regardless - how do you feel about what you’re getting in return? What’s your opinion on the quality of Seattle teachers and the schools there overall?
https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/labor-unions...
https://www.epi.org/publication/eroded-collective-bargaining...
My opinion is that the teachers should be paid more and people in the city should be taxed far higher than they are. I attended Seattle public schools K-12 myself, and the older I get (now in my late 30's with a kid of my own), virtually all problems they face can be addressed by better compensation. All the teachers I know are kind, well-meaning people who do their best despite facing an adverse situation. Teaching has gotten significantly more difficult since COVID. In Seattle in particular, high income families have tended to pull their kids out of public schools and put them in private schools, where paying upwards of $50-60K/year isn't uncommon. Because of the ways public schools are funded in the state, this essentially operates as a zero sum game.
I really think the solution is to pay way more. I have a math background: I did a very prestigious postdoc at one of the best applied math institutions in the world. I love teaching. If I could get paid at least $150k/year to teach high school math in the Seattle public school systems, I would jump at the opportunity. I think a lot of other people would, too. If you create the opportunity for exemplary people with superlative backgrounds to teach and to inspire young people, it will easily burnish the reputation of the schools and create a virtuous cycle enabling their improvement.