Updated

Updated · KOMO News · Sep 1

Seattle Schools Chief Warns Against Strike Over $100M Deficit as Union Seeks Higher Pay

Updated

Updated · KOMO News · Sep 1

Seattle Schools Chief Warns Against Strike Over $100M Deficit as Union Seeks Higher Pay

Q: What specific editorial boundaries prompted a Seattle sports writer to resign rather than alter his column on transgender athletes?

Matt Calkins said he resigned because the Seattle Times would not publish a column that argued support for sex-separated girls’ and women’s sports does not automatically make someone anti-transgender, and he believed that reflected editorial limits on viewpoints that challenged prevailing newsroom norms. According to Calkins, the immediate dispute centered on a column built around two Washington student-athletes who opposed competing against transgender girls and said they were being unfairly labeled. He said editors delayed the piece, elevated it to top newsroom leadership, and ultimately told him it would not run because he had not notified them in advance that he was pursuing the topic. Calkins said he did not accept that explanation, arguing the draft would have been rejected immediately if advance notice were the real issue. He described the broader editorial boundary as an unwillingness to publish commentary that risked backlash by questioning dominant narratives on sensitive social issues in sports. In his public explanation, he said other columns had also been spiked, including one questioning the U.S. women’s soccer equal-pay lawsuit, one on cancel culture in sports, and one urging readers to hear a Black basketball coach’s warning against stereotyping police. In Calkins’ view, the line he was asked not to cross was writing columns on contentious culture issues from perspectives editors considered too far outside acceptable newsroom boundaries.

3 articles · Updated · KOMO News · Sep 1

Ben Shuldiner told Seattle educators the union "does not have to strike" and said the current contract stays in force as the school year begins.
$100 million in budget shortfall is driving the district's stance, with Shuldiner saying Seattle Public Schools is "broke" even as it offers retroactive pay and a 9% raise over three years.
91% of Seattle Education Association members authorized a strike if no new deal is reached, with pay, benefits, special education support and workload pressure the main sticking points.
About 5,000 fewer students than in 2019 have deepened the district's financial strain after a school-closure plan was abandoned, leaving Seattle to seek other cuts plus state and local funding.