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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @05:07PM
Well, I think both the anarcho-capitalist AC (assuming that's her I've been bouncing ideas off of) and the different AC (me) have a solution for you!
Anarcho-capitalism provides an obvious solution, which I'm sure the other AC will be happy to detail.
My solution is somewhat different. In either case, it's not going to be as easy as marking something off on some paperwork somewhere. We need to exercise political authority by showing up at the polls and voting for Greens and Libertarians, plus any other party (US Taxpayers/Natural Law party?) willing to join a coalition against the D/R team.
Soap box, ballot box, jury box, ammo box. The teachers in Oklahoma are using the soap box. There has been rumbling as concerns other teacher protests of making them criminally liable for continuing their protests without union support. We need to use the jury box there and the inherent right of jury nullification. We also need to use the ballot box effectively; stop voting for R/D team and start voting for political parties that represent change. Both the Greens and Libertarians are militarily isolationalist. So, this November (if you're a US citizen), head out to the ballot box and exercise political authority to stop military adventurism and corporate bailouts.
For people who want Trump gone and can't wait until 2020, exercise political authority at the ballot box. Maybe the D team will do it and maybe they won't. The elites want World War 3, and as long as Trump will give them World War 3, they will not remove him from office.
And well, keep the ammo box around, and I hope we don't need to use it. We shouldn't need to use it. (My axiom remains that human life is valuable above all else; yet men are not angels. I do not demand that one human give up her life simply because another human demands such.) The other three boxes should be sufficient in a democracy.