蜜柚直播

Teachers in Oklahoma are getting ready to walk out as well.

Teachers in 蜜柚直播? They鈥檙e watching, wearing red on Wednesday and wondering just how far they should go.

The once-unimaginable prospect of 蜜柚直播 teachers walking off the job is slowly becoming a possibility. Not a likelihood, but a threat with some legitimacy.

Joe Thomas, president of the 蜜柚直播 Education Association, was speaking cautiously just over a week ago, when The as saying the 鈥渟tatewide action we need鈥� is to elect new officials, not strike.

But when I talked with Thomas Monday, the day before the West Virginia teachers won their walkout, his rhetoric was growing stronger.

鈥淭he possibility of some kind of statewide action increases as they (teachers) are ignored,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e inspired by what鈥檚 happening in West Virginia.鈥�

鈥淚 see a growing number of teachers that feel a statewide action is the only way they鈥檒l be taken seriously.鈥�

As they feel their way forward, today 蜜柚直播 teachers are being encouraged through an online campaign to wear red to raise awareness of issues such as low salaries, too few certified teachers and too many students per class.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a lack of certified teachers in 蜜柚直播,鈥� Mary Martinez, president of the Sunnyside Education Association, told me. 鈥淲e have a lack of certified teachers who want to teach.鈥�

This movement began not in the unions like the AEA or the locals for each district, but from teachers organizing online in response to the West Virginia walkout. They created a Facebook group called on Sunday, and by Tuesday had brought 9,400 people together that way. The unions are jumping aboard a movement that is growing organically online and in the hallways and break rooms of schools.

鈥淎 good majority of our members have talked about what鈥檚 happening in West Virginia and whether that鈥檚 something that we should do,鈥� Martinez said. 鈥淚f we get to the point that we鈥檝e tried all the avenues, this would be a last resort. This is something that I as a leader would consider.鈥�

State law does not make it illegal for teachers to strike, longtime Phoenix labor attorney Stanley Lubin told me. In the late 1970s, he took part in a key case involving teachers in the Roosevelt School District in Phoenix who called in sick as part of a work stoppage.

The state Court of Appeals said the teachers could not strike, but the 蜜柚直播 Supreme Court overturned that ruling, he said.

鈥淭hey took the position that they didn鈥檛 have to decide that issue, then ruled in our favor on other grounds,鈥� he said.

蜜柚直播鈥檚 status as a 鈥渞ight-to-work鈥� state is irrelevant, he said, because that simply means employees can鈥檛 be forced to pay union dues in order to work for a given employer.

But the legalities of striking may be less of a concern than the politics surrounding a possible walkout. The state Capitol and Governor鈥檚 Office are controlled by people who have a skeptical view of school districts and their teachers, and downright hostility toward teachers鈥� unions. On the other hand, 蜜柚直播鈥檚 electorate has been sympathetic to schools and teachers and could ensure the officials don鈥檛 overreact.

There鈥檚 also the fact that about 16 percent of 蜜柚直播鈥檚 public-school students go to charter schools. If a walkout involved exclusively district teachers, that could turn the public either way. They might support those walking out, or they might think charter-school teachers are acting more responsibly by staying in school.

Then there鈥檚 the fact that 蜜柚直播鈥檚 school system is decentralized. Most of the power to set teacher salaries resides in the individual school districts, so while a statewide walkout by teachers could lead to the Legislature increasing funding for schools, in the end the districts would all have to pass that money on to employees. The dramatic, West Virginia-style outcome is unavailable in our system.

Whatever happens, Gov. Doug Ducey鈥檚 office is prepared to defend him as the person who turned around education funding. Spokesman Patrick Ptak noted that statewide, teachers are getting a 2 percent raise over a two-year period, as part of what the governor鈥檚 office describes as a $380 million injection of money beyond what is required as an inflation increase.

The state superintendent of public instruction, Diane Douglas, is trying to push the governor and Legislature to go further. For the second year in a row, she鈥檚 had legislators introduce bills that would give voters the chance to increase the state Prop. 301 sales tax for education from 6/10 of one cent to a full cent per dollar, and to extend its life beyond the current endpoint in 2021.

So far, even the idea of putting that proposal on the ballot has gone nowhere in the Legislature. It鈥檚 that kind of inaction that is leading teachers to leave the profession and driving those who remain to gird themselves for a walkout.

Sandy Faulk, the president of the Marana Education Association, told me, 鈥淚 have never been part of a walkout before. I鈥檝e never been part of a strike before. Clearly in West Virginia it was very powerful, made a statement and made change.

鈥淚n the climate like we鈥檙e in right now, an act like that could make change.鈥�