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Common Dreams reports
Teachers in Oklahoma applauded the state Senate's passage of a $447 million bill to fund educators' first raise in a decade by raising taxes on oil and gas production as well as cigarettes and fuel--but warned that the plan is not enough to keep them from striking.
The proposal was approved in a 36-10 vote on Wednesday night [March 28] after weeks of speculation that teachers would stage a walkout beginning April 2 to demand salary increases as well as more funding for their overcrowded schools--where teachers are frequently forced to pay for supplies out of their own pockets.
"While this is major progress, this investment alone will not undo a decade of neglect", said Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) President Alicia Priest in a press release.[1] "Lawmakers have left funding on the table that could be used immediately to help Oklahoma students."
The mobilization by teachers in Oklahoma follows a multi-day strike in West Virginia earlier this month during which educators and school employees also occupied the state capitol to demand raises and a permanent funding solution for their health insurance program. The West Virginia strike kept the state's schools closed for nine consecutive school days and continued after lawmakers passed a one-time five percent raise, with teachers insisting that all their demands be met.
[...] "This package doesn't overcome shortfall caused by four-day weeks, overcrowded classrooms that deprive kids of the one-on-one attention they need. It's not enough", Priest said. "We must continue to push for more annual funding for our schools to reduce class size and restore more of the 28 percent of funds they cut from education over the last decade."
[1] Content is behind scripts.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AndyTheAbsurd on Friday March 30 2018, @12:49PM (18 children)
Anyone else think that the
nature of this particular protest is setting a bad precedent?
Hopefully I'm misunderstanding what's going on in Oklahoma.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @12:58PM (5 children)
It isn't about practical outcomes; it's about dominance; it's about emotion.
You are being forced at the point of a gun to fund these imbeciles. It's totally absurd—it's anathema to a free society.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @02:02PM (4 children)
Uf you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday March 30 2018, @03:34PM (2 children)
You do realize that some of the most ignorant sons of bitches in the world have been treated to very expensive educations?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @07:20PM (1 child)
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @11:20PM
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't lead a horticulture."
Betsy DeVos, (exampla gratia, non auctoris.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @03:54PM
I think our school system is expensive and it still pumps out ignoramuses in massive numbers. Rote memorization factories are not exactly good at educating people, after all. 'It's better than nothing.' is about the best you can say.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @01:30PM (3 children)
Keep reading.
So it's:
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @07:46PM
There was a similar "settlement" in West Virginia the other week.
33,000 Teachers Stage Wildcat Strike in West Virginia; Into a Second Week [2018-03-07] [soylentnews.org]
What they got was a 5 percent pay raise for all public sector workers.
The way that will be funded will be to further cut the safety net for the infamously impoverished Working Class in West Virginia without touching the incredibly rich Dirty Energy corporations within the state.
In addition, what was missing from the deal was their big gripes: the improvement of the healthcare funding structure and fewer kids per classroom.
...and the thing about poor kids [google.com] is that you never know which one is going to prove to be the next genius. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @11:25PM (1 child)
Four days of school a week is fine. Children spend too long in those rote memorization prisons as it is. Quality over quantity. Sadly, our school system has nothing in the way of quality.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:30AM
Leave it to Beaver is mostly fiction--and that was true even when it was in production.
Adult females in households don't do housework in high heels and pearls.
...and in most households these days, both parents work outside the home in order to pay the bills.
So, what are the parents of those kids supposed to do on that 5th day?
Miss a day of work?
You consume way too much Fox so-called News.
The fantasy world they would like to to believe in doesn't exist.
...and hasn't, going back at least to Reagan.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @02:14PM
It isn't about practical outcomes; it's about dominance; it's about emotion.
You are being forced at the point of a gun to fund these imbeciles. It's totally absurd—it's anathema to a free society.
(Score: 5, Informative) by donkeyhotay on Friday March 30 2018, @02:31PM (2 children)
I live in Oklahoma and am pretty familiar with the situation. Yes, you are misunderstanding. The legislature did not meet the teachers' demands. They passed a funding bill that only partially meets the striking teachers' demands and is temporary in nature.
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Friday March 30 2018, @02:59PM
Great, thanks for the clarification.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday March 30 2018, @03:12PM
So at the end of the year their pay goes back down by 5%? Temporary and non-continuous are not the same.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @02:37PM (3 children)
That's how Pravda is no doubt presenting it. Teacher unions seek rotten deal as momentum grows for April 2 statewide walkout in Oklahoma [wsws.org]:
Note that's what the union is pushing, which the teacher think is insufficient. The unions are working for the elites to try to stifle worker discontent with stagnant wages and spiraling healthcare costs (only spiraling because of our insurance-industrial complex).
Oklahoma teachers reject funding bill, prepare to strike [wsws.org]:
So even here, the pay increase isn't even meeting what the union wanted to settle for.
Arizona teachers protest as Oklahoma educators battle union sabotage [wsws.org]:
I also want to point out that the protest was organized through Facebook. That is the main reason Facebook has fallen out of favor with the establishment. It really has so little to do with SJWs and identity politics. In fact, it's because identity politics is failing to keep the masses placated that we see the push for internet censorship.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @03:42PM (2 children)
OriginalLoser forgot to sign his post. No one else here cites wswswswswswswswsws
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @04:21PM (1 child)
Well, you've now got somebody else who does, but I admit that Original Gewg_ is who turned me on to WSWS. I read WSWS daily now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @07:56PM
You can find viewpoints there that you won't see anywhere else.
I'm especially fond of the way they repeatedly call e.g. The International Socialist Organization (socialistworker.org) and Workers World Party (workers.org) "pseudo-Left" when those guys e.g. praise crappy deals that union officials have accepted followed by a back-to-work order for the rank and file.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]