Dive Brief:

• What should have been the first day of school in Seattle was canceled late Tuesday after negotiations broke off between the teachers union and the city. 
• The sticking points are pay raises, teacher evaluations and the length of the school day. Early on, the district offered a pay raise of almost 9% over three years, the union came back with a 10.5% increase over two years. Then Monday, the union asked for $172 million and the district offered $62 million plus raises and other enticements. 
• More offers and counter offers were made, with the union walking away late Tuesday leaving 53,000 public school students with at least one more vacation day. The school board agreed to authorize legal recourse against the roughly 5,000 striking teachers.

Dive Insight:

Washington state is having an education crisis. Just a couple hours away from Seattle, the Pasco School District teachers are weighing their next move after defying a court order. And Friday's move by the state supreme court helped create a charter school mess. This scenario has been building for a while and is likely to play out in other parts of the country. All of the woes can be attributed to budget cuts, stagnant budgets and diversion of budgets.