Teachers in red-state America were watching their colleagues in West Virginia. The AP reports from Oklahoma City, “A teacher rebellion that started in the hills of West Virginia spread like a prairie fire to Oklahoma this week and now threatens to reach the desert in Arizona.”
A nine-day strike in West Virginia ended when teachers got a five percent pay raise. Now, teachers in Oklahoma, who hadn’t received an increase in a decade, got raises of between 15 and 18 percent. But educators there still plan to strike on Monday demanding more money and funding for education.
Oklahoma teachers just got a $6,100 pay raise. They're going to strike anyway https://t.co/EfA9W3vkVI
— TIME (@TIME) March 29, 2018
“While this is major progress, this investment alone will not undo a decade of neglect. There is still work to do to get this legislature to invest more in our classrooms.” –Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association
Now teachers in Arizona are also protesting low pay. First-year teachers there make $34,000 a year, $4000 under the national average, according to NBC News. At a rally yesterday, they demanded a 20 percent pay increase and more money for schools.
"Every Arizona child deserves a quality public education."
Teachers in Arizona are protesting low pay and a widespread teacher shortage in the state. pic.twitter.com/FwI9wUIZs9
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 29, 2018
This red-state rebellion comes after years of education cuts in GOP controlled state houses. Oklahoma ranked 49th in the nation in teacher pay.
Many GOP-led states are feeling the pushback after years of tax cuts that have slashed funding for core government services such as public schools, said Lily Garcia, president of the teachers union NEA.