He is spitting nails.
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Teachers in Oklahoma are rallying for more education funding and salaries, and those in Kentucky will be marching over a controversial pension bill and the state budget.
Oklahoma ranks 47th among states and the District of Columbia in public school revenue per student, almost $3,000 below the national average, while its average teacher salary of $45,276 ranked 49th before the latest raises, according to the most recent statistics from the National Education Association.
When the Legislature passed the bill on to the governor last Wednesday, Woods said expectations again shifted among teachers. That vote followed earlier walkouts. Oklahoma educators are some of the lowest-paid in the country.
AP writer Tim Talley contributed from Oklahoma City.
Kentucky teachers are decrying what they call “bait-and-switch” changes to their pensions, after state lawmakers tucked those reforms into another bill about sewage and passed that bill last week.
Many schools in Kentucky and Oklahoma are facing financial hardships and most do not have enough textbooks for students. Schools not on spring break closed. It is not yet clear when or if Arizona teachers will go on strike. “Public education in Kentucky is right now in limbo”.
Teachers throughout Oklahoma are planning to walk out of class on Monday in protest.
Arizona Educators United, a grassroots group similar to Oklahoma Teachers United, has taken the helm in that state.
Protesters like kindergarten teacher Missy Stebbins echoed the sentiment that lawmakers need to support education. “This is been going on an very bad long time, and we’re not really being heard”.
Some of the poorest teachers in America were also there as the lawmakers voted.
As HuffPost previously reported, Oklahoma had to slash education funding in the wake of the Great Recession like many states.
“We have zero confidence today’s state leaders will act any more responsibly than those of the past who enacted massive tax increases with promises to fix education and other vital services”, OKOGA President Chad Warmington said in a statement. “You’re not going to stop that with a $6,000 raise”.
“We came out here to support our teachers because they support us”, Duncan student Kierney Holdthaus said.
“And instead of finding logical sources for funding, they just want to cut and take away”.
“A student once saw me waiting tables at a wedding”, she says, recalling the humiliation. “How do you negotiate with Facebook?”. He tells NPR that despite the “passionate” voices of those on social media, “We don’t see any way of getting any more money”.
Teacher unrest is not just limited to Kentucky.
Teachers, he said, have grown deeply distrustful of state lawmakers who repeatedly pledged to give them a raise and to restore cuts to education, but failed to do so. The OEA didn’t accept the deal.
He also noted that charter school funding was not included in the negotiated budget. The teachers union has called for an additional classroom funding of $75 million.
“We’re good to go”, she said.
Despite the pay hike, Oklahoma educators still earn below the national average for public school teachers of $58,950 a year, according to the National Education Association report.
The association, the state’s largest teacher union, is calling for $10,000 raises over three years, $5,000 raises for bus drivers, custodians and other staff, and restoration of tens of millions of dollars in education funding trimmed in recent years.
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Adjusted for inflation, the amount the state spends per student has fallen almost 30 percent over the past decade, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
