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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, @11:18PM (2 children)
The US college market is a disaster. The vast majority of colleges are little better than high schools, which themselves are merely rote memorization factories. All around the world (not just the US), we measure less important things that are simply easier to test for, which can give the illusion that we're properly educating people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:03AM
You keep saying this, over and over again. I wonder why that is?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:25AM
Ok, so what does the college market have to do with high schools? With the current failure of a lot of K-12 public schools, remedial education is a large part of the lower tier of colleges and community colleges. So right there, there's a lot of rote memorization because someone else, who is not part of the market, isn't doing their job.