Erin Lunde

I attended the Public School Funding Discussion last night. The strike is over as of a tentative agreement made overnight, but shit we have troubles going forward. I have many more than 50 words, but this is what I’m adding for yesterday’s 17th day since the strike was called.

Days spin out and everyone is sick.

The strike is ending and we’re still under water. The state is still trying to get out from under the cuts to education made years ago.

What can I do. Vote Republicans out. We’re one of only two states with a split legislature.

My god.

Days ago, we heard “promising news” regarding the strike.

Now, I hear “budget cuts,” and I know that will mean no more music.

We went to Iowa. We’re back. The house remains. The strike continues.

The past two years are fuzzy, like a misremembered dream.

We need to go back.

We’ll go back tomorrow. I wonder what we’ll know by then. My 50 words:

I realize that just because I’m in a different space it turns out I still have kids I need to care for.

The district says they offered their “last and best” deal. I’ve heard nothing and I cannot speculate. I know we won’t have school on Monday. How about Wednesday?

Another weekend.

The second strike Saturday.

At Sam’s lesson in the morning, in Minneapolis, I am struck by how few people even know.

We scramble into the van and drive to my parents’ because it’s not like we have school on Monday. We see my nephew, visiting on Spring Break.

What now.

I’m mad today. My kids need to go to school. My kids’ teachers need to feel valued. My 50 words:

I hear a plane fly overhead. I want to get on it.

We’ve been school-free for eleven days.

Alice says she likes weekends but she likes school more.

I feel like an insect in a bug house inside a zoo. Watching other people get to do shit through compound eyes.

For a few minutes, I thought it was over.

Thomas texts a Tweet. “MPS is happy to announce…” it reads. I can’t finish it because I’m driving.

If the district is happy about something, it’s got to be a deal. It’s over, I think. Will we get to go back tomorrow? Or Monday?

No. I misread; the strike continues.

I don’t care that it’s nice out. This is hard. Another account of the day in 50 words.

I think of kids with special needs, needs beyond supervision.

I think of teachers having to work two jobs.

I think of how easy it is for us to go for a walk and I know it’s so hard to have the energy to Do This for days on end.

Even though we have All Day, we wait until Normal Time to practice. Then I look up and see it’s 8:15 PM and no one is in jams. Then I realize time doesn’t matter.

I remember distance learning kicking us into outer space where we spun – still alive, somehow – untethered.