Where does the teacher pay proposal stand?

But teachers say Colorado has a long way to go to recover lost ground because of strict tax and spending limits.

A Colorado Springs teacher at the rally said she thought teachers felt newly empowered by other teachers and by the support they’ve received in Colorado.

The march included parents, children and educators all wearing red to raise awareness of the $1.5 billion cut from school funding in Arizona since 2008.

Ducey, in a series of appearances on morning news shows Thursday, repeated his contention that his plan to boost teacher pay by 19 percent by the 2020-2021 school year at a cost of $670 million is financially viable.

Most said they are not getting paid now or would not be getting paid as the walkout extends beyond the weekend. It’s among the most ambitious voucher programs nationally. Many crowd members held signs that read statements such as “Fund our Future”, “Classrooms not corporations” and “Don’t make me use my teacher voice”, among many others. “You’ll see the total package is one that is fiscally responsible”, he said.

Teachers are important. They inspire us and, in some cases, can change the trajectory of our lives.

The uprising comes after teachers spent the last decade defending themselves from blame for America’s ailing school systems. Almost two-thirds of respondents approved of national teachers unions, and three-quarters said teachers have the right to strike.

The protests have been spurred by activism in Republican-controlled states like West Virginia, Kentucky and Oklahoma that brought increases in pay and budgets.

Arizona’s governor has reached a deal with lawmakers aimed at ending a statewide teachers’ strike. According to a newsletter of the AZGOP, teachers are “partisan Democratic political operatives who are putting politics ahead of our kids”.

Ducey brushed aside questions about whether he can offer them anything more as an inducement to return to the classrooms.

Michelle Goldberg is a columnist for The New York Times.

The rights of teachers unions also have been challenged from Madison, Wisconsin, to the U.S. Supreme Court, and there’s an effort to tie teacher performance evaluations to their students’ test scores.

The vast majority of Arizona’s more than 200 public school districts, with roughly 1.1 million students, canceled classes for Thursday and Friday.

In the meantime, Baca-Oehlert cheers the motivations behind the teacher protests.

“I’ve had enough of not having enough”, said Martha Petty, who teaches media studies at Harris Bilingual Elementary School in Fort Collins, Colo., and has been teaching for 32 years.

Hoffman praised the educators for having a walk-in and not disrupting education.

Ducey is playing politics. The AEA president has clearly stated that after Monday they will divert the teachers struggle into a dead-end ballot initiative and campaigning for Democrats in November.

Carrie Deahl, an English teacher in the Phoenix Union High School District, said she was disappointed that the governor and Legislature weren’t meeting with the organizers of the #RedforEd movement. Some teachers shouted over him “We want more”, while others applauded his pledge. “As a professional, I feel insulted”. The two groups share the concern of some Republicans that the governor’s estimates of higher tax revenues and lower social service expenses is speculative at best. In doing that they should join the movement to adequately fund America’s public schools and press this state to meet its constitutional obligation to provide for the “thorough” education of Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren. Gilbert Public Schools already has announced it will remain closed.

“I’m walking for her”, Sandoval said of her daughter.

“This is not something that erupted overnight”, Cather said.

The week before what Baca-Oehlert refers to as the current “days of action”, Senator Bob Gardner and Representative Paul Lundeen, a pair of Republican legislators from El Paso County, introduced Senate Bill 18-264, which “prohibits public school teachers and teacher organizations from directly or indirectly inducing, instigating, encouraging, authorizing, ratifying, or participating in a strike against any public school employer”.