The first Seattle teachers strike in 30 years has forced the district into a tentative contract agreement, union representatives announced Tuesday, following a 12-hour negotiation session and a week of picketing, protests, and school closures.

While union representatives say the city’s schools will reopen Thursday, the strike will not officially be over until the 5,000 members of the Seattle Education Association (SEA) vote on the deal Sunday. Some are urging caution, as the strike is not over until educators themselves say it is.

Already, the strike has provoked broad debate over fairness for workers and students, in a city where schools are plagued with racial and economic segregation and inequality—and rising living costs mean many teachers are no longer able to live where they work.

“We’ve negotiated a pro-student, pro-parent, pro-educator agreement.”
—Jonathan Knapp, Seattle Education Association President

As labor reporter Sarah Jaffe recently argued, the Seattle strike is part of a growing nationwide education justice movement, from Chicago to New Jersey, in which parents, teachers, and community members are “schooling government on how to improve education.”