Politico has a brief roundup of the 2018 teacher actions:
TEACHER STRIKES – A GUIDE TO THE SPRING UPRISING: A free lunch and retail-store discounts await educators in honor of National Teacher Appreciation Day. But this year, the quasi-holiday comes amid a heated national debate over how much a teacher’s work is worth.
– West Virginia’s statewide teacher strike in February appeared to be an isolated event. But after teachers in the Mountain State claimed a 5 percent raise, educators in other states took heed. Demonstrations and some concessions followed in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arizona. Now the question is, will the #RedForEd movement maintain its momentum?
– On the results so far: Teachers have won pay bumps and education funding increases, but state legislatures haven’t met all their demands. For example, Arizona Republicans last week codified a 20 percent raise for teachers by the year 2020 and a $100 million education funding boost. That’s well below the $1 billion teachers wanted to make up for cuts since the Great Recession. In Oklahoma, teachers ended their walkout last month when it became clear they likely wouldn’t be able to squeeze any more money out of state lawmakers this year. They walked away with a $6,000 raise – below their $10,000 ask – and a quarter of their request for new education funding. Teachers in West Virginia have no guarantees that their health insurance costs won’t go up after a year.
– Coming up: North Carolina is likely to be the site of the next mass teacher work stoppage, for one day at least. As the North Carolina General Assembly begins work on a budget, the state’s largest school districts are planning to close May 16 as teachers rally at the state Capitol. They plan to ask lawmakers to boost per-pupil spending and teacher pay. Union officials say the demonstrations will last just one day without the possibility of a longer work stoppage, and will focus on “standing up to a general assembly that has … given tax breaks to the wealthy while starving our public schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Texans aren’t allowed to strike, but massive sick outs and protests would do the trick…come on Texas
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We’re not allowed to strike in North Carolina either. All the teachers participating in the May 16th march were originally going to take a personal leave day and (for many) give up $50 from their paychecks to pay substitutes. That’s been made moot in the districts that have closed (nine and counting as of late today) because too many teachers will be out to replace, but many others will still be literally paying to protest. No longer action is planned because it would be illegal.
Not that any of this law-abiding behavior is winning friends in the GOP-controlled legislature. We’re already being attacked in the press by both Senate President Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore as essentially ungrateful and hurtful to our students. The “we just gave them a raise and this is how they thank us” attitude is strong, even though the raise was a pittance and they paid for it by cutting back elsewhere in education funding, especially for teachers’ aids. We’re still getting by with less funding than from before the Great Recession began, with an ever-increasing teacher shortage, and with the possibility that they’ll change the funding formula for schools to a “follow the student” model that will end up benefiting the newly uncapped charter industry. But according to Moore and Berger, we should be grateful that they gave us anything and just shut up and teach.
On May 16th, they’ll hear our voices loud and clear instead. NCEA has said that there are already over 10,000 teachers who have registered with them to march, and you can bet that the real crowd will be even bigger than that. We’ll swamp those legislators in a sea of #RedforEd and give them a real lesson in democracy.
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Teachers have to pay for their own subs???? That’s barbaric!!!!!
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Maybe on May 16, Phil Berger will hand out begging bowls for teachers.
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Hooray. Need to blanket this country with resistance acts.
We all know the elite want to starve and control our public schools. We know the elite with Help from politicians launched a successful BIG LIE and fueled the lie that America’s public schools are in crisis. I remember when Reagan’s commissioned book, A Nation in Crisis, came out there were those who applauded it as outstanding and a “real” exposure of our public schools. That book was a OLOY well-crafted in a larger scheme. Reagan was the mouthpiece delivering lines to a camera.
At that time, there were students across this nation engaged in reading “real” literature, doing real writing, using the scientific process, engaged in wholitic and i integrated curricula, and s schooks were places of learning and joy. Problem was the publishers of textbooks profits were diminishing. Enter, the elite whose profits were down. Oh my, what to do? Enter politicians, backed by the monied.
Then the erosion fueled by fake news and blame. Why not? After all America is all about blaming. Hah, those public school teachers need to be put in their place. They better turn a profit for us. Enter standards….Clinton, the “three strikes and you are” man.
We all know the real reason for this mess.
Public School Teachers cannot stop protesting. Remember Women’s Suffrage and more.
I don’t mean to sound preach, but we public school teachers matter for we have proven over and over again that we are smart, trustworthy, nurturing and for the common good of all.
So, YES, we Public School Teachers must continue to protest, strike, resist, and take back our profession. Those same airheads woulfn’t dare do this to a profession dominated by white makes.
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Some things need to be made clear here. First, teachers were not asking for a raise in their income but a raise in the education budget to, yes, increase teacher pay (elementary teacher pay is at #50). More importantly, teachers want money in the Arizona education budget to fund smaller class sizes (Arizona has one of the highest student to teacher rations in the country), fund more counselors, restore building maintenance funds, etc. I have had to cancel two wonderful STEM field trips where all of the other costs were covered with the exception of the buses. I was unable to secure a district school bus because there are not enough bus drivers available to take one for an entire day, and paying $3000 for a charter bus is not doable. This is infuriating.
Another important point is that NOT all teachers in the districts are actually being counted in the “20 by 2020” calculation. Left out are reading specialists, resource teachers, ELL teachers and the like. Therefore, by the time we look at the actual money district will be receiving and the number of teachers actually in the district, we believe that we are looking at something more like a 5-7% increase over the 3 year span leaving us still in the bottom (let’s say) 3 states for teacher pay in the country.
Please do not oversell our progress. We have won a small battle, but we are fighting a huge war against the revenue cuts made by this administration and the money misspent on things like “Freedom Schools” and school vouchers that could sustain education in a way that benefits all of the children of Arizona.
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Peter Greene points out that we really should add South Carolina (and many other states) to the list of states where teachers are walking out. It’s just that in these other states, teachers are doing it one at a time and they don’t intend to come back: http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2018/05/south-carolinas-teacher-walkout.html#comment-form
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“There is no right to strike against the public” – Calvin Coolidge.
With the recent strikes by public employees in some states, you can bet that state legislatures in other states, are watching the developments closely. You can also bet, that some (not all) states’ legislatures will be proposing legislation to deal with public employee strikes.
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Is that line from Calvin Coolidge in the Constitution? I missed it.
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The Constitution was written in 1787. Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872 (The only president born on the 4th of July). Coolidge was the governor of Massachusetts in 1919, when the Boston police went on an illegal strike. His decisive handling of the strike, made him a national figure. see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge
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But Charles, surely there is an amendment to the Constitution saying that public employees are not allowed to strike. Because Silent Cal said so.
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Public employment is a public trust. We cannot have police, firemen, air traffic controllers, soldiers,etc walking off the job. I believe that Pres. Coolidge was correct, in that there is no right to strike against the public.
I have worked as a civil service employee. In my employment contract, I had to agree in advance not to participate in a strike, and also swear an oath, under penalties of perjury, that I would not participate in a strike.
You can be certain, that state legislators all across this nation, are watching the recent spate of teacher strikes, and that some new legislation, will be forthcoming.
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We will see.
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I sincerely hope, that our nation’s school teachers can receive adequate wages and benefits, commensurate with their contributions to our society and our nation’s youth. No one should have to take a vow of poverty, to be a school teacher. I hope that our state legislators can “see the light”, and provide the necessary resources to ensure that all children enrolled in our nation’s public schools, have the quality of instruction that they deserve.
So mote it be.
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This is already true in many states, where public employees (including teachers) are barred from striking. The statement by Phil Berger here in NC says exactly that, in an attempt to intimidate teachers out of participating in the May 16th march:
‘.@SenatorBerger critical of school closure for teacher protest: “Teacher strikes are illegal in NC, and in some respects what we’re seeing looks like a work slowdown, and looks like a fairly typical union activity, and the people of NC don’t support that sort of action”‘
This, despite that fact that NCAE is not a union and that teachers are taking a perfectly legal personal leave day to do this.
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Just a quick fact check. OEA’s Together We’re Stronger legislative 3-year plan set goals for a $10,000 teacher raise; $5,000 ESP raise; and $200 million for school operations. The goal for this first year was for teachers to receive a $6,000 raise; $2,500 ESP raise; and $75 million for school operations. The teacher raise is an average of $6,100 (raises on the state minimum run from $5,001 (beginning educator) to $7,700 (teacher moving to the last step); ESP’s will receive a mandated $1,250 raise (only the second time in recent history with support employees have received mandated increases from the state); and $70 million for school operations ($33 million for textbooks).
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