The teachers strike that canceled classes across Portland Public Schools for nearly all of November dampened support for several — but not all — of the parties implicated in it, according to a poll released Monday by the nonprofit Oregon Values and Beliefs Center. But where Oregonians agreed most strongly was when asked if the strike needed to happen at all.
A significant majority said it shouldn’t have.
FILE: J.J. Tabshy, 9, left, and his father Josh Tabshy, center, cheer during a Portland Teachers Association rally outside of the Portland Public Schools district office in Portland, Nov. 7, 2023. A poll released Feb. 12, 2024, found many members of the public believe the strike did not need to happen at all.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Nearly seven in 10 Oregonians said the strike “could have been avoided.” That’s one of the major findings of the survey of more than 1,800 Oregonians from across the state, though many respondents were concentrated in the Portland area. The survey was taken between mid-December and early January, just a few weeks after the strike ended. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3%.
More than half of those who said the strike could have been avoided blamed both the district and the teachers union for not taking a “different approach” to reach a resolution. Close to one third of those who thought the strike wasn’t necessary blamed the school district primarily. Less fault was laid solely at the teachers’ feet.
During the strike, leaders of both Portland Public Schools and the Portland Association of Teachers blamed the other side for a lack of resolution.
More than a month before the strike began, PAT President Angela Bonilla said her members didn’t want to strike — but if they did, it would be the district’s fault. “[A]s of now, it’s really up to the district as to whether those concessions will happen and whether we’ll have a strike,” Bonilla told OPB last September.
And when the strike was over, PPS board member Andrew Scott argued the ultimate contract fell short of the “transformational” document that teachers were hoping for.
“We (got) a contract that we cannot afford,” Scott said at a school board meeting after the district and union reached an agreement. “We cannot afford it because the governor and Legislature have failed to adequately fund education in Oregon. Full stop.”
In the poll released Monday, respondents were left with negative feelings not just for school board members like Scott, but for the institutions he mentioned as being responsible for the lack of funding at the core of the contract debate: the governor’s office and Oregon Legislature.
The survey found the greatest change in negative sentiment hit the PPS school board, with 28% viewing the board more negatively after the strike and only 10% seeing its members more positively. The school board was pressured by the Portland Association of Teachers toward the beginning of the strike to become more involved. Union leaders said that after school board members responded and became more engaged, the two sides made more progress at the bargaining table.
Both the Oregon Legislature and Gov. Tina Kotek took a hit in the court of public opinion following the extensive strike and school closure in Portland. More than 20% of respondents said they felt more negatively toward the governor and legislators. The governor had 12% seeing her more positively after the strike, compared to just 8% positive for lawmakers.
Opinion toward teachers was more split after the strike. Portland teachers had slightly more respondents seeing them positively — 22% — versus 20% seeing them negatively.
In commenting on the poll, Oregon Values and Beliefs Center Executive Director Amaury Vogel noted that the positive feelings toward teachers come despite difficulties many Portland families faced through the long school closure.
“What’s even more noteworthy is that Portland residents demonstrate a greater net-positive change in their opinions of schoolteachers, despite facing challenges such as child care and workforce disruptions, worries about students falling further behind after pandemic-related learning losses, and last-minute changes to the school calendar after the strike ended,” Vogel said in a statement attached to the polling results.
Respondents’ somewhat positive feelings toward teachers didn’t extend to the state-level teachers union, the Oregon Education Association. Only 16% saw the OEA more positively after the strike, compared with 24% seeing them more negatively.
