Oklahoma’s teachers are angry. They are among the lowest paid teachers in the nation, and teacher shortages are growing as colleagues move out of the state or give up teaching for something else.

Teachers across the state are seriously considering a statewide strike. 

One teacher started a Facebook page and with a few days, 52,000 people had signed up for it.

Teachers from the state’s two urban centers gathered at a Moore public library Friday evening to weigh their participation and the timing of any such organized effort.

The meeting attended by about three dozen teachers from seven districts around the state was organized by Heather Reed, a teacher at Lee Elementary School in Oklahoma City. Reed said April 2 is the date currently under consideration because that’s “when it might hurt the most.”

“Our teachers are exhausted, tired,” Reed said.

Also in attendance was Larry Cagle, a language arts teacher at Edison Preparatory School in Tulsa.

“We are at a crossroads where either something positive happens … or we find ourselves coming back in August with a severely demoralized and depleted teaching corps,” Cagle said.

In 1990, a four-day, statewide teachers’ strike forced House Bill 1017 through the Legislature and then a vote of the people. The measure raised taxes for increased teacher compensation in exchange for a series of policy changes, including class-size limitations, mandatory kindergarten, training for school board members and parent education programs.

A new Facebook group called “Oklahoma Teacher Walkout — The Time Is Now!” (bit.ly/ thetimeisnowok) was created late last week and already has more than 52,000 members.

Interesting that this new teacher militancy is happening even as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that is intended to kill teachers’ unions. Oklahoma is a “right to work” state, but that hasn’t stopped teachers from collaborating to demand higher pay and better working conditions.