That’s what Governor Ducey tweeted out Friday afternoon referring to a plan from the state to fund education and give teachers and staff a raise.
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Lawmakers have agreed to give schools their largest budget increase since the recession but the teachers’ union wants them to repay the rest of what they say was wrongly taken from schools during the recession over the next four years.
It didn’t work though, and now Oklahoma teachers say they’re turning their attention to the ballot box.
More than 10,000 Colorado teachers are expected to rally at the State Capitol.
Friday’s events kicked off at 9 a.m.at Civic Center Park. A formal rally is scheduled for 2 p.m. That group, also dressed in red, gathered across the street from the school, rallied and then walked to the campus to begin what was to be a shortened day of instruction. “It is evident now, more than ever, that we need to collaborate to develop funding solutions to support the entire education continuum”.
Details of the plan to boost funding weren’t immediately released Friday but some kind of tax increase is probable.
“This is incredible. It was all we hoped for”, Hart said.
Almost 800 teachers in Durham have requested personal leave on May 16 to travel to the state legislature to call for higher school funding, pay raises, and reductions in class size, local NBC affiliate WRAL reported Thursday. Lee said they definitely started something.
But the teacher protests in other states aren’t just about their pay.
“We want to make sure we can gauge the membership about what they want to do”, said Derek Harris, one of the organizers of grass-roots group Arizona Educators United.
“They closed shop and ran away from us yesterday…we have to show them, they can’t run away from our students”, Thomas said. He also said it may be premature to call off the walkout simply because of the initiative, noting backers have yet to get the signatures, much less get voters to approve it.
Another student, Cayden, said he was out to support his mother and grandmother, who are both teachers.
A potentially more troubling sticking point is whether schools will have to spend the $670 million for teacher salaries strictly on that.
When they learned that she uses part of that meager wage to buy snacks for her kids, rugs and chairs for her classroom, strangers in NY sent a box of Scotch tape and pencil erasers and a sixth grader in London shipped her a $150 gift card. I get scared to fly, but people who try to shoot us down like that?
“When I don’t have to work a second job, I can spend more time planning”, said Sarah Buck, a teacher with the Adams 12 Five Stars Schools in the Denver suburb of Thornton. I’m doing it for 125 kids that walk in my room every day.
The Chandler Unified School District says its announcement Friday that schools will remain closed Monday is “based on the number of teachers who have reported their absence for Monday”. “We want equitable access to education for all ages and all abilities”. “Arizona is delivering on its commitment to our students and teachers”. “I’m not very happy”.
FOX21 sat down with one mom, whose three children attend schools in the Pikes Peak Region, and she said the teachers are sending an important message. I know it’s not enough.
“We feel this is a sustainable plan”.
“That’s still $670 million that you guys are owed”, Hickenlooper said, to chants of “Where is it?!” The new law creates a two-tier pension system.
“We see you. We hear you”. We just can’t trust him.
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“It should put us, by the time we’re done, pretty close to where we were on an adjusted for inflation basis to where we were in 2008 on per pupil funding”, he said.
