Campaign Action
After putting boots on the streets, the West Virginia teachers striking for better wages have forced the mostly Republican legislature to bend to their will.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill Tuesday that gives a 5% pay raise to all state employees, including striking teachers and school staff.
The deal is intended to end a teachers' strike that has
canceled nine consecutive school days across the state. Teachers' union representative Christine Campbell told CNN she anticipates school will be back in session Wednesday.
And just like that. Teachers across the country are reminded that they too can take to the streets if our government officials continue to fiddle-faddle with our children’s educations. Next up? Oklahoma, where educators are tired of the bullshit being flung their way by
oil-pocketed earthquake apologists.
The increasing momentum for a strike in Oklahoma comes as a strike by West Virginia teachers entered its ninth consecutive school day on Tuesday. State lawmakers, hoping to bring the strike to an end, reached a deal on Tuesday morning to raise all state employee salaries by 5 percent. Oklahoma’s 42,000 teachers make even less than their West Virginian counterparts; in 2016, the average Oklahoma teacher earned $45,276, a salary lower than that of teachers in every state except Mississippi. With no pay increases for Sooner State teachers in a decade, educators have been leaving for greener pastures, moving to neighboring states like Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Texas. Last May, Shawn Sheehan, Oklahoma’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, announced that he would be moving to Texas for more financial stability.
This isn’t new. Oklahoma’s teachers have been asking nicely for too long. Some of them have hit the pavement to panhandle from their fellow citizens—in order to afford school supplies. Municipalities across the country are getting devastated by shrinking budgets, charter schools leaching public funds, and politicians from both sides of the aisle throwing their hands up in inactivity. That’s over. It’s time for teachers to strike. And win.