Oklahoma teachers stage second day of protests over education funding and pay

Shawn Sheehan was a Norman High math teacher when he was honored as the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year by the state education board in 2015.

Collins and Poolaw said they know they’ll get paid for up to four days of protesting but aren’t sure if they’ll have to use paid time off if the strike goes beyond that.

In Kentucky, teachers also closed down schools across the state as they flooded the state capitol to oppose changes to their pension plan.

Leaders of the House’s GOP majority immediately scheduled another school funding debate for Tuesday.

Teachers are unhappy with the substance of that bill which will place new teachers into hybrid cash balance retirement plans rather than defined benefit plans – something teachers say will make it hard to recruit future teachers.

Hundreds of educators in Oklahoma walked out Friday after Gov. Mary Fallin signed legislation last week granting teacher salary raises of about $6,100, or 15 to 18 percent.

A teacher told Buzzfeed News, which she’s been buying textbooks for her students: “I’m funding my classroom, which is great, but I need them to now step up in order to do that”. Oklahoma also offered tax breaks to oil companies to attract their business, but these corporate tax breaks diminished state revenue from 2008 through 2014.

The court ruled the state needs to properly fund education.

In Oklahoma, as in West Virginia, teachers got a boost from their bosses as school boards and superintendents expressed frustration with the mass defections of teachers to neighboring states such as Texas, which offer much better pay. With Arizona Governor Doug Ducey refusing to acknowledge their demands, educators in the state may be gearing up for a strike of their own. In a movement they’re calling #RedforEd, teachers are asking for 20 percent more income and increased education funding. They say they felt chalking cars would help to spread their message quicker throughout the state.

And on Monday, he spoke out in support of the thousands of teachers who rallied at the Capitol for increased higher education funding and state employee salaries. “Whatever it takes because they’re our future and, if we don’t do things for them, who’s gonna do it?” Currently, teachers receive pension benefits that are “inviolable” under state law, meaning lawmakers can’t change them.

But the recent strikes suggest that labor activism may not need highly-funded unions to be effective.

The protest follows a successful two-week job action by West Virginia teachers that led lawmakers last month to vote to raise their pay, and comes as teachers in Kentucky and Arizona plan other labour actions to demonstrate against years of stagnant or reduced budgets by Republican-controlled legislatures. Teachers in Arizona are now considering a strike over their demands for a 20 percent salary increase.

The bill, which overhauls the state’s pension, passed mostly on party lines and heads to Gov. Matt Bevin, who supports reforming the system.

“I have had to forgo on saving more for retirement, too”, teacher Pablo Benitez said in a statement issued by the Denver teachers’ union.

“Stop the war on public education!”

And they insist that it’s time for the state to invest in education.