Teachers are walking out of school today - here's why

Teachers in Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Arizona are walking out today in a protest over low pay, pensions, and poor funding for overcrowded schools. Many schools are closed as 30,000 teachers are expected in a protest in Oklahoma City. A major protest is also ongoing in Kentucky. 

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Teacher protest in Oklahoma.

Highlights

By Marshall Connolly (Catholic Online)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
4/2/2018 (6 years ago)

Published in U.S.

Keywords: Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, teacher, walkout, pay, pensions, school

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - Teachers are walking out in Oklahoma and Kentucky to protest low pay, pension cuts, and poor school funding. A smaller walkout is also taking place in Arizona today. 

Teachers in Oklahoma protest that they are paid very little, a fact that has many leaving the state for neighboring Texas where starting pay can be nearly double. In Oklahoma, average starting pay for teachers is around $31,000 which works out to about $21/per classroom hour. 

Such pay isn't worth six years of university education, continuing education, and nearly double the hours in homework, prep, and adjunct duties. In addition to teaching reading, writing and, arithmetic, we expect teachers to be coaches, disciplinarians, social workers, first-responders, mental health professionals, and in some places, there is talk of teachers serving as armed security. And ultimately, we expect teachers to stand and defend children with their bodies.

While some argue that teachers make excellent pay, this is a myth. When teachers' actual working hours are tallied, many salaries are fully halved. In addition, budgets for school supplies have been cut to nothing forcing teachers to spend their own money to provide supplies for students. Stories of teachers buying art supplies, pencils, and their own copies are common, even in affluent school districts. Almost every teacher has bought lunch for a hungry student at some point. 

This isn't hyperbole. This is education in America today. 

For a variety of reasons, we have discounted teachers and education. Now, an entire generation of youth is growing in a nation that underfunds its schools. As these youth graduate and join the largest voting bloc in American history (millennials and Gen. Z), how should we expect them to vote? What values will they support?

One Oklahoma teacher summed up her decision to walk out in a viral post. In her social media post, she put a picture of a broken plastic chair with cracks in the seat. 

One teacher posted a picture of this chair to demonstrate the state of her school and the need for more funding.

Ok here's my story and why I'm walking out. This is my fourth year teaching in Oklahoma and after taxes and insurance I take home $2,311 a month, $27,732 a year. I could make about 20 grand more by moving to Texas or Arkansas, and many teachers are doing just that. Oklahoma is losing qualified teachers every day. These kids deserve the opportunity of a great education but we cannot give them that if all our teachers are emergency certified or completely over worked.
I teach six classes each day. As of today this is how many students I have in art class:

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2nd Hour- 30 students 3rd Hour- 27 students4th Hour- 32 students 5th Hour- 19 students 6th Hour- 23 students7th Hour- 30 students

This is way too many students for one class. Especially art class. I've had to cut back on the fun, ambitious, and exciting projects literally because there isn't enough room on the table for 32 kids. I literally do not have enough chairs for 32 students. This photo is something every one of my students is familiar with. This chair, or cheek-pincher, is what my students have to sit on. Most of the chairs in my room look like this. Once they get to this point it's only a matter of time before the bottom goes completely out. Today a student actually carried his chair with him to sharpen his pencil because he got in early enough to get a good chair. I've gotten a few new students and had to throw a bottom-less chair away so tomorrow I'm having to bring in a couple of folding chairs I have here at home. That's why I'm walking out.
These kids deserve so much better than this.
They deserve teachers who are qualified to teach.
They deserve classes that are small enough that the teachers can actually spend some time with each student.
They deserve CHAIRS.
They deserve a quality education just as much as kids in surrounding states.
This is about so much more than a raise. It's about the future of Oklahoma. That's why I'm walking out.
And this bill that just passed is no where near enough to make an actual difference. I'm still ready to walk out and stand my ground.

In Kentucky, teachers are walking out over massive cuts to pensions that will discourage people from becoming teachers. It also cuts an insurance benefit that pays for basic funeral expenses. Worst of all, the bill also slashed school funding with cuts so deep that many school districts won't be able to make up the difference. 

The Fayette County School District in Kentucky faces $18.4 million in cuts, the equivalent of 304 teacher salaries. With classes already overcrowded, the cuts are unbearable. With many poor districts in the state, local funds cannot make up the shortfall.
 
State universities are also being cut by about 6.25 percent. 

Cuts to pensions matter because in some states, like Kentucky, teachers do not pay in to or receive social security benefits. 

People must value education as a public good. Kids in school aren't on the streets. Educated kids make more productive workers who require less training and oversight. More workers with better education means less crime, fewer criminals, and a smaller prison population. Education also means fewer people on welfare. Overall, education is an investment which results in lower taxes in the long term as more people working create more value and pay taxes, which lightens the load for everybody. 

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However, these benefits require robust funding for schools and reasonable pay for teachers. 

No person becomes a teacher for the money. Teachers put in many years of education with continuing education over time, which they often pay out of pocket. In addition to attending school throughout their careers, teachers must also put in long hours both in the classroom and at home. By the hour, teaching pays significantly less than other jobs which also require a degree. 

At present, we are producing a generation of students who recognize that our society does not value their education, their safety, or their concerns. This is being reinforced by their teachers who despite fulfiling a critical niche in society enjoy little respect and low pay. 

If these trends continue, we should not expect the children that graduate from these schools to respect traditional American values and institutions, after all, those values and institutions have them packed into overcrowded classrooms with disgruntled, haggard, overworked teachers who are underpaid and forced to buy school supplies and lunches for their kids. 

There are certainly tougher jobs out there, but taken as a whole, few of those jobs are as critical to our nation's future as teaching. Without teachers, it is harder to make workers of every kind. It doesn't pay to short education.