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Colorado: Teachers’ Protest Launched Today

By dianeravitch
April 16, 2018 //
20

Hundreds of teachers mobbed the State Capitol, demanding better school funding and salaries.

DENVER — Hundreds of public school teachers swarmed the Colorado state Capitol on Monday, shuttering one suburban Denver school district to demand better salaries, as lawmakers were set to debate a pension reform measure that would cut retirement benefits and take-home pay.

With the demonstrations, Colorado educators join peers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona who have staged strikes or high-profile protests in recent weeks to draw attention to what teachers unions see as a growing crisis in the profession.

In Colorado the need is especially stark – and apparently at odds with a state economy that ranks among the nation’s best. The average teacher salary – $46,155 in 2016 -ranks 46th among states and Washington, D.C., according to the latest figures from the National Education Association.

By another metric, Colorado’s dead last. The Education Law Center, an advocacy group, said this year that Colorado’s teacher salaries are the worst in the nation “when compared to professionals with similar education levels.”

Teachers rallied in and outside the building Monday, holding signs and chanting slogans including “You left me no choice. I have to use my teacher voice.” They drew honks from passing cars before heading inside, where their cheers and songs resonated throughout the Golden Dome, drawing lawmakers out of their respective chambers to investigate the noise.

 

 

Categories Colorado, Education Reform, Funding, Resistance, Teacher Pay

Colorado: Teachers Plan to Walk Out, Descend on Legislature to Demand Higher Pay, Better Funding

By dianeravitch
April 16, 2018 //
5

 

The Denver Post reports that some teachers in Colorado plan to assemble at the State Capitol today to air their grievances, namely, low salaries, which have contributed to teacher shortages.

Inspired by walkouts in other states, teachers will meet with legislators to make their case.

“Earlier this year, 100 CEA members told lawmakers about a survey of more than 2,200 CEA members that showed the average educator spent about $656 a year out of their own pockets for student needs. Many CEA members presented invoices to the General Assembly for the past due amount.

“The CEA said educators in Colorado have had their pay cut by more than 17 percent when adjusting for inflation. A recent study from the Education Law Center, a group that advocates for more school funding, ranked Colorado dead last in the competitiveness of its teacher salaries.

“The typical 25-year-old teacher at the beginning of his or her career in Colorado makes just 69 percent of what a peer with a similar education level who works similar hours earns, the Education Law Center said….

”The CEA on Monday will lobby lawmakers to restore and increase education funding — K-12 public schools in Colorado are underfunded by $828 million in the current school year — and to secure a stable retirement program, CEA president Karrie Dallman said.”

It remains to be seen whether Colorado teachers will enlarge the protest and close down schools across the state. Public schools have been shortchanged by the Legislature.

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Colorado, Education Reform, Funding, Resistance

Kentucky: Legislature Overrides Governor’s Veto of Tax Bill to Fund Education

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2018 //
5

Mercedes Schneider reports good news: The Republican-controlled legislature in Kentucky overrode the Republican Governor’s veto of a bill to raise taxes to pay more for education.

There is a lesson to be learned in this vote: Republicans represent districts, especially rural districts, where the local public schools are the heart of the community. They don’t want to divert money to charter schools. They don’t want to lose their teachers. As we have seen in Texas, where rural Republicans have been the bulwark against vouchers, education is, can be a bipartisan issue. In almost every state, 90% of the children are in public schools, and parents love their local schools. When Republican legislators hear from their constituents, they usually respond. The Koch brothers and the DeVos family don’t own everyone.

She writes:

Public school teachers aren’t greedy people. We aren’t career ladder-climbers gauging “arrival” by our numerous vacation homes and yacht club memberships. But we would like salaries that do not necessitate side employment; safe, clean, and sufficiently-spacious facilities for ourselves and our students, and teaching materials of adequate number and appreciable quality.

In short, we want our state legislatures– red or not– to support us with suitable revenue dedicated to public education.

Attempting to deliver on that might even require Republican legislatures to override vetoes of Republican governors.

Well done, Kentucky!

Categories Funding, Kentucky

Oklahoma: Anti-Tax Group Starts Petitions to Block Teacher Pay Raises

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2018 //
14

 

In Oklahoma, there are conservatives who believe that the highest value is cutting taxes, preferably to zero. With tax cuts comes the collapse of public services, like public schools, law enforcement, and public infrastructure. Who needs teachers, Police, firefighters, highway repairs, etc.? So what if some public schools are open only four days a week? Why not three days? Two days? Or let the kids be home-schooled and save money?

So it is not surprising that anti-tax zealots are circulating a petition to block the pay raises won by a nine-day teacher walkout. 

What matters most in Oklahoma? Low taxes for the oil and gas industry. Fracking. Dark Money.

“Lawmakers already passed a historic tax increase to fund those teacher raises, and it was signed by Governor Mary Fallin. But, it would only take a little over 41,000 signatures on an initiative petition to at least temporarily stop those raises from happening.”

Will the new Oklahoma motto be: We don’t need no education.

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Oklahoma

Kentucky: No Teachers, No Schools, Walkouts Grow

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2018 //
17

 

The teacher walkouts continued and grow larger in Kentucky, where teachers are massing by the thousands in the State Capitol to protest changes to their pensions. The two largest districts in the state are closed.

“School districts across Kentucky will once again shut down as teachers plan to flood the state Capitol on Friday to rally for public-school funding and protest newly signed changes to public pension programs.

“As of Thursday afternoon, at least 36 districts had decided to close Friday, citing teachers calling in sick or the likelihood that they would. The closures include public schools in Louisville and Lexington ― the two largest school districts in the state….

“That frustration began to boil over last year when the Legislature, fully in Republican control for the first time in nearly a century, passed a bill to allow charter schools in the state.

“The issue was the potential “diversion of public money into charters,” said David Allen, a former president of the Kentucky Education Association…

“That laid the groundwork,” Allen said.

”Then, in January, Bevin proposed drastic cuts to schools and public education programs, even though funding was already tight. In inflation-adjusted terms, Kentucky’s K-12 budget was down 16 percent since 2008, according to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

“Bevin’s proposal prompted dire warnings from school superintendents around the state, who said some cuts would push Kentucky’s poorest school districts to the brink of insolvency….

”Many Kentucky teachers, meanwhile, have come to believe that Bevin’s approach to education isn’t driven by the interests of taxpayers or its public schools. They see it as part of a broader movement, led by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to further privatize education by deliberately undermining public schools.

“It’s a dismantling, step by step by step, of public education,” said Pam Dossett, a teacher in Hopkinsville. “So they can sit back and say, ‘Our public schools, they’re not working.’ And then they can replace them all with charter schools.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Funding, Kentucky, Pensions, Resistance, Teachers

Arizona: Governor Agrees to a 20% Raise for Teachers

By dianeravitch
April 12, 2018 //
9

 

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey agreed to a 20% pay raise for teachers by 2020 after previously offering only 1%, on top of last year’s 1%..

Teachers are wary.

“The Associated Press notes that the educators “were also seeking increased pay for support professionals, a permanent raise structure, and a freeze on corporate tax cuts until per-pupil spending reaches the national average.” Ducey’s proposal didn’t include more spending on those items.”

“On Wednesday, Arizona teachers staged a statewide “walk-in,” demanding an increase in pay and more funding for schools overall. And, organized by a recently formed advocacy group, Arizona Educators United, teachers had also discussed the possibility of staging a walkout if Republican lawmakers refused to reinstate about a $1 billion in cuts in state education funding over the last decade.

“The governor’s proposal includes a 9 percent increase that would go into effect this fall, bringing the median teacher salary in Arizona to $52,725.

“Ducey also pledged to give teachers a 5 percent increase in the fiscal year 2020 budget, and another 5 percent in the year after that.

“Those increases, coupled with the 1 percent increase teachers were given last year, would add up to the 20 percent raises and make the average teacher salary $58,130, Ducey said.

“As Casey Kuhn, reporter for NPR member station KJZZ wrote, Arizona teachers are among the lowest paid in the country, according to federal data. Average salaries last year were actually $8,000-$9,000 less than 1990 salaries when adjusted for inflation.”

An article I read today but will post tomorrow said that Republicans planned to link the pay offer to their voucher expansion proposal, which educators and parents have been fighting and which will be the subject of a statewide refendum, unless the Republicans find a sneaky way to keep it off the ballot.

 

Categories Arizona, Budget Cuts, Funding, Teacher Pay

John Thompson: On the Front Lines in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
April 11, 2018 //
9

 

John Thompson, teacher and historian in Oklahoma, reports here  on the continuing walkout:

 

Like most Oklahomans, I misjudged the crowds of 35,000 teachers at the state Capitol. Reading between the lines of press coverage, and listening to people inside the Capitol, I assumed that a deal would probably be struck after a week (at the latest.) On Friday, however, I kept running into former colleagues, who had always been extremely a-political, and saw their fervor. Regardless of what their leaders sought in terms of reaching an agreement, it finally dawned on me that teachers have just begun to fight.

Nobody was surprised, however, when Republican legislative leaders struck back. A week into the walkout, Rep. Chuck Strohm (R-Tulsa) attacked the Oklahoma Education Association and teachers seeking an increase in education funding. He attributed the walkout to “the OEA [which] had to come up with a new reason for existing.” Strohm asserted, “Today, teachers are crying for more money from the legislature to reduce class sizes when the real problem is the education establishment whose sole purpose is to grow their kingdom.”

Strohm wants wages to be driven by free market competition. He says that the current salary schedule “is the essence of Socialism.” He believes “the problem stems from the fact that we live in a culture of handouts without any accountability.”

http://chuckstrohm.com/inside- the-captiol/

Neither was it a surprise that the conservative Oklahoman started the next week with a misleading headline, “Dark Money Group Funding Pro-Teacher Ads.” It followed the money for pro-teacher television ads to Oklahoma’s Children Our Future, the 501(c)(4) whose chief funders were former Senator David Boren and the Tulsa-based Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation, and which advocated for a penny sales tax increase to save our schools. The Oklahoman hasn’t bothered to investigate the really secretive investments by conservatives like ALEC, the Koch brothers and Betsy DeVos.

http://newsok.com/article/5590115?slideout=1

Players and Money Behind Penny Sales Tax Campaigns

As the walkout’s second week began, DeVos also weighed in with the “hope that adults would keep adult disagreements and disputes in a separate place, and serve the students that are there to be served.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/04/09/betsy-devos-to-oklahoma-teachers-serve-the-students/?utm_term=.169205f6f00f

But the Sunday Oklahoman’s lead story sent the more pointed message. It listed the needs of other state agencies: Oklahoma Department of Human Services had to cut $108 million from its budgets, with much of it due to the unnecessary loss of federal funds; the Department of Mental Health has lost $133 million, and reduced services to 73,000 persons suffering from mental illness; Higher Education has been cut $122 million; the Transportation Department has lost $500 million in the last two years; and the Department of Corrections is asking for $1 billion.

http://newsok.com/state-agencies-say-they-have-funding-needs-too/article/5589886

Of course, the question is whether teachers are selfish adults who put their needs over children and the rest of the state, or whether these multiple crises are due to the legislature, the governor, and their secretive out-of-state funders, cutting taxes for the rich.

Clearly, education supporters are winning the battle of the narratives. Even though Gov. Mary Fallin compared teachers to teenagers and tried to link the crowds to Antifa, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol describes them as the “best protesters ever.” On Sunday, a prayer vigil at the Capitol drew hundreds of supporters. Monday morning, 150 female attorneys marched in support of teachers. Thousands of education supporters marched from Edmond, Del City, and Norman. They will be followed by veterans, students marching on Tuesday, and the arrival of the marchers from Tulsa.

Fact check: Antifa, paid protesters and death threats at the Oklahoma teacher walkout

OHP on teachers at state capitol: “Best protesters ever”

Monday’s turnout was much greater than last week’s. The Tulsa World reported that schools serving about 500,000 of the state 690,000 students remain closed. Sometimes it looked like all of those kids joined the rally!

Seriously, the number of students at the Monday rally was far, far greater than the first week. And it is great hearing the kids explain why they chose to attend, and how they love the civics lesson they are participating in. My favorite sign was carried by a student, “My textbook is twenty years older than me.”

Similarly, a couple of teachers volunteered that their 6th grade student spoke inside the Capitol. He decided completely on his own to research the issue of Oklahoma and national teacher salaries.

Prayer vigil draws hundreds to Capitol Sunday night

Girl Attorney group recruits 150 female attorneys to advocate for teachers

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/over-students-statewide-out-of-school-monday-as-walkout-continues/article_eb4dcbe5-24f8-5b99-b7f1-e77a77faf40d.html

By the way, the determination of teachers, as well as parents and school boards, to keep up the fight is due to both the state’s budget cuts and the effects of corporate school reform. From FY2010 to 2017, the average inflation adjusted Oklahoma teacher salary plummeted by $8,150. As the state’s teacher salaries declined to 49th in the nation, the average salary dropped to a level ($45,245) that is virtually identical to the average pay preceding the 1990 strike.

Because of Oklahoma’s “Education Spring,” 3/4ths of the salary decrease has been corrected, but reversing the damage done to students will take a long campaign. Extreme tax cuts for the 1% drove Oklahoma over the edge, but we must tackle the corporate school reforms that also undermined the teaching profession.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_211.60.asp

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2011/08/grading_the_education_reformers.html

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/9/17214924/oklahoma-teacher-strike-tax-cut-rich-charts

This battle must lead to a conversation about what happens when teachers and students are treated like lab rats. Whether we are talking about the weird idea that extreme budget cuts will produce transformative economic growth, or the idea that market-driven experiments will create transformative student performance increases, we need to start treating the education sector with respect. And a teacher’s sign asks the key question about the task, “If Not Now, When?”

Categories Education Reform, Funding, Oklahoma, Resistance, Teacher Pay, Teachers

Florida Teachers: Dont Give Governor Scott Credit for Our Hard Work

By dianeravitch
April 10, 2018 //
5

 

The Florida Education Association decries Governor Scott’s efforts to take credit for Florida’s test scores on NAEP. He and his allies in the Legislature have been consistently hostile to public schools and their teachers. Don’t believe the myth of the Florida success story. It is not a model for the nation. The state is consistently in the middle of the pack nationally, as I showed here.

 

April 10, 2018 CONTACT: Joni Branch, (850) 201-3223 or (850) 544-7055

FEA: Scott doesn’t get the credit for Florida students’ achievements

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott is crowing today about Florida’s results on the just-released 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Indeed, Florida showed improvement from 2015 to 2017 in fourth-grade math and eighth-grade reading and math. In a larger context, a look at past NAEP reports shows that Florida has just been holding steady since Rick Scott took office, with ups and downs along the way.

Whatever achievements Florida’s students make are no thanks to Rick Scott. The FEA would congratulate instead the people who do the work – teachers, education staff professionals and students – despite all the obstacles put in their path.

To Rick Scott and the Legislature, thanks for:

An ever-worsening shortage of qualified teachers

Teacher pay that lags the national average by $9,000, making it difficult to attract and keep new teachers

Education funding that hasn’t kept pace with inflation, and is still $1,000 below 2007 per-student levels (inflation adjusted)

An increase of just 47 cents per student in the new state budget

Working to weaken public education by channeling tax dollars to unaccountable private schools and charters

“Gov. Scott is trying to spin political gold from assessment results that, over the long term, don’t back him up,” said FEA President Joanne McCall. “But we’re happy to give credit where credit is due, to the teachers, education staff professionals and students who continue to achieve no matter how many roadblocks this administration has put in their way.”

# # #

The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with more than 140,000 members. FEA represents pre K-12 teachers, higher education faculty, educational staff professionals, students at our colleges and universities preparing to become teachers and retired education employees.

Only the individual sender is responsible for the content of the message, and the message does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Florida Education Association or its affiliates. This e-mail, including attachments, may contain information that is confidential, and is only intended for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed.

FEA | 213 S. Adams St. Tallahassee, FL 32301 | 850.201.2800 | Fax 850.222.1840 Send an email to unsubscribe@floridaea.org to opt-out from receiving future messages. ­­

Categories Florida, Funding, School Choice

Mercedes Schneider: Oklahoma Teachers Demand Funding for Decent Schools

By dianeravitch
April 6, 2018 //
15

 

Mercedes Schneider places the Oklahoma teachers’ strike in perspective. The teachers want a salary they can live on, without working two or three extra jobs to make ends meet. But that’s not all. They want the state to fund the schools. Like so many red states, Oklahoma has catered to the oil and gas industry, cutting its taxes, while starving public services. The shame of the state is the four-day week that so many schools have adopted as part of the budget cutting. How can a state attract new industries when it isn’t willing to fund its schools?

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Oklahoma

John Thompson: A First-Hand Report from the Front Lines in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
April 5, 2018 //
10

John Thompson, teacher and historian in Oklahoma, just sent this update on the wildcat walkout:


Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin told CBS News that the state’s teachers who walked out in protest against a decade of extreme budget cuts are “kind of like a teenager wanting a better car.”

When her words prompted a widespread backlash, the Republican governor, who presided over the tax cuts which starved Oklahoma schools and thus precipitated this week’s work stoppage, changed the subject, claiming “Antifa is here.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oklahoma-teachers-fight-for-increased-funding-were-doing-this-for-our-kids/

http://www.news9.com/story/37876428/gov-fallin-faces-backlash-after-comments-to-cbs-news

Fallin isn’t the only Republican who is attacking teachers by pretending that their protests have attracted “outside” groups to the state Capitol. Rep. Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, said that he didn’t think protesting teachers were setting a good example for students. Rep. McDugle said in a now-deleted Facebook post that he would not vote “for another stinking (education) measure when they’re acting the way they’re acting.”

Rep. McDugle said teachers can, “Go ahead, be pissed at me if you want to.” Then he also complained that the protest has been “pretty rowdy,” and that “legislators have received death threats and alluded to legislative aides being released from duty early Tuesday due to safety concerns at the overcrowded Capitol.”

During the 3rd day of the walkout, Rep. John Enns (R) said that “25% of protestors were paid actors from Chicago.”

Contrary to those charges, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol tweeted that it has merely provided medical assistance, helped with one lost child, handled one minor traffic accident, and “assisted large crowds of teachers and other pedestrians crossing the streets.” The OHP said that the House Speaker had cleared the House Chamber due to noise. The reason why the OHP was limiting entry to the Capitol was that the Fire Marshall restricted entry to to crowd size, requiring a “one in, one out” procedure to avoid overcrowding.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/teacherwalkout/oklahoma-lawmaker-s-rant-inspires-teacher-to-announce-campaign-for/article_7535f223-f90b-5b8f-ad5f-a4f2a742c89b.html

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/teacherwalkout/go-ahead-be-pissed-at-me-oklahoma-lawmaker-upset-at/article_b2ad7075-7b66-50f0-8c1f-a42587e8b739.html

https://www.facebook.com/KOCOZach/?fref=mentions

I haven’t seen any signs of Antifa or violence, but one supposed “outsider” lives three blocks from me. He is a member of a notorious radical group – the Oklahoma County Democratic Party.

However, I did see teachers acting like teenagers in one sense. I mean no disrespect to my former high school students; they were great dancers. But I don’t know that they could compete with the moves of dozens of teachers line dancing to Tom Petty’s “We Won’t Take It Anymore!”

Here are other things I’ve seen as 35,000 or more teachers have rallied the last three days.

The first teachers I met were discussing a former student at my old high school. They were mourning his decision to drop out. Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, who used to teach in my classroom, said that testing contributed to the student leaving school. I later learned about the tragic outcomes of two of my former students. Those conversations were reminders that despite the best efforts of teachers, in a state where more than 60% of students are economically disadvantaged, and where 85 to 90% of urban students are eligible for free and reduced lunch, funding for a system of student supports is essential.

I’ve also seen information that has been left for the legislators that explains:

Oklahoma loses 383 teachers per month;
Over 62,000 school kids are being taught by someone who isn’t certified to teach; and
Three of every four student teachers will leave Oklahoma.

https://www.poncacitynow.com/school-superintendent-arrott-issues-letter-on-teacher-walkout-guidance-for-parents/

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/05/us/oklahoma-teachers-possible-strike-trnd/index.html

http://www.stwnewspress.com/news/feeling-unsupported-by-state-student-teachers-bolt-for-better-pay/article_fa6d99e0-4be0-5a94-a536-e756dabfb07c.html

We’ve also had a chance to look at Oklahoma education through the eyes of national journalists who are documenting the ways that teachers struggle with huge classrooms, the lack of teaching materials, and the exhaustion resulting from working multiple part-time jobs, not to mention the indignity of selling plasma and going to food pantries to feed their families.

I have to admit, however, that I’ve enjoyed PBS’ coverage of teachers posting photos of today’s raggedy remnants of the textbooks. We used some of them in a school that was closed over a decade ago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/it-just-hurts-my-heart-low-pay-big-classes-are-the-plight-of-oklahoma-teachers/2018/03/30/e5e10eb8-2c88-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html?utm_term=.010c339d211f

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/02/teachers-wildcat-strikes-oklahoma-kentucky-west-virginia?link_id=6&can_id=790e8d3653612cbd5257360c47a6e4fe&source=email-wave-of-teachers-strikes-kentucky-and-oklahoma-interviews-available&email_referrer=email_328219&email_subject=wave-of-teachers-strikes-kentucky-and-oklahoma-interviews-available

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-43578465/oklahoma-teacher-strike-i-have-29-textbooks-for-87-pupils

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/oklahoma-teachers-are-posting-their-crumbling-textbooks-online

The Oklahoma walkout is a grassroots uprising. Like the teachers unions, the rank-in-file educators who revolted were aware of the many dangers that they took by stepping up. But as the National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen Garcia says, this is the “education spring.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/us/teacher-strikes-oklahoma-kentucky.html?action=click&contentCollection=us&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

And as American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten advised marchers, in every job action, there is “always a moment of truth.” She predicted that Oklahomans would do both – stand firm and respond wisely to evolving circumstances.

It is no surprise that educators have kept the focus on our children, who have suffered through state funding cuts of 28%. Neither can we be surprised by the juvenile way that so many Republican leaders have responded to the moment of truth. Every day, we are feeling our hope grow. The whole world is watching, and outside of the besieged conservative leadership that created this crisis, there is no doubt as to who is battling for our kids.

Categories Funding, Oklahoma, Resistance
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