It was a long time coming, but when 400 members of the Scranton Federation of Teachers (SFT) marched out of the school board meeting Tuesday night singing “Solidarity Forever,” they were strike ready.

The school board had just given the go-ahead to cut off educators’ health insurance if they went on strike. This, after dozens of teachers and para-educators had spoken about the devastating cuts that students and teachers have endured over the last four years — cuts to pre-K education, to the arts, to music, to libraries. And after educators had told the school board about the medical conditions — cancer, multiple sclerosis — that would go untreated or result in monumental bills without health insurance.

In the face of the board’s “callous and heartless” decision, as SFT president Rosemary Boland called it, the union’s 900 members did not back down. Yesterday they hit the picket line.