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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: 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]