Oak Harbor school teachers took their discontent with the state Legislature to the streets Friday, taking a one-day walkout to wave picket signs along State Highway 20 and rally on the waterfront.

Teachers and supporters dressed in red were out early waving red signs that said: “On strike against legislature. Stop blaming teachers. Start funding schools.”

The strike is part of a larger teacher union-led statewide movement aimed at getting the attention of Olympia.

“My biggest beef is they’re not supporting voter-approved initiatives that not teachers but voters have said students deserve,” said Mike Briddell, a science teacher at North Whidbey Middle School.

“We’re not out here for teachers; we’re out here for students.”

Teachers are concerned lawmakers are shortchanging teacher pay and benefits and not following through on voter-approved initiatives to decrease class sizes. They don’t like linking test scores to teacher evaluations, a policy they say isn’t based in research and doesn’t help students or teachers.

They also think it’s a bad idea to make standardized test results part of graduation requirements.

Drivers responded with honks and waves. Once in awhile a driver would shout sharp words at the strikers indicating they didn’t agree.

Friday morning a few hundred teachers and supporters gathered at Windjammer Park on the waterfront. They chanted, held signs and red balloons, and listened as a parent, students and a teacher talked about how they feel a lack of funding and an over-emphasis on standardized tests are hurting kids.

Amber Worman is the mother of a first-grader. She told the assembled crowd that high-stakes standardized tests are a “machine” that sends the message “that tests are more important than what’s happening in the classroom.”

That’s not the focus she’d like for her son.

After the rally, those attending were encouraged to write postcards to state legislators.

Karen Hamming is a fourth-grade teacher at Oak Harbor Elementary. The public thinks this strike is just about teacher pay, she said. It is about that, she acknowledged, but it’s also about the Legislature floating proposals that go against what voters have approved and not adequately funding public schools.

In particular, Hamming said she’s concerned about class size. She teaches 28 children with a wide range of needs and abilities. She said she adores her students, but it’s difficult to give the children the one-on-one attention each deserves. Her classroom shouldn’t have more than 24 children, she said.

She doesn’t want people in Oak Harbor to assume the teachers are striking because of local concerns.

“We love Oak Harbor and its voters,” Hamming said. “We are supported and thankful for the people who passed our levies. This is not about the district or our voters. This is about holding the state Legislature accountable.”

The planned teacher strike forced the district to shut down school. The district is handling the strike like a snow day, and students will attend class May 26, a day already set aside as an emergency closure make-up day. School is still scheduled to end on the same day, June 16.