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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 aristarchus on Friday March 30 2018, @11:15PM (2 children)
I have been saying this, for quite some time!! It is the alt-right whites that reduce the intelligence of the American population! This is why we cannot have "white supremacy", 'cause white folks be so dumb! Matt Heimbach! Cantwell the crying neo-nazi! My God, these people are dumber than dumpsters of hammers! So there, I said it, white trailer trash is what lowers the American IQ! Not surprising, since it was all the Caucasian countries that realized they could just export all the stupid to the New World, or South Africa. Stupdity=Racism, and although correlation is not causation, the correlation is pretty strong in this case!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:37PM (1 child)
And those whites that stayed home aren't racist? You're full of shit. The simple fact is, people raised in diverse environments are far less likely to be racist, those who are raised in monocultures are far more likely to be. Racists exist everywhere there is an ethnic supermajority, because those people have far less opportunity to be exposed to other cultures.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aristarchus on Saturday March 31 2018, @06:37PM
Ah, simple facts from simple people! How do you know this is the case? Do you have any empirical evidence that this is so? Scientific evidence, even if only sociological surveys? Or are you just appealing to your own "common sense", something anyone else would recognize as prejudice.