Teaching Profession News in Brief

Teacher Activism Persists in U.S.

By Madeline Will & The Associated Press — February 26, 2019 1 min read
Teachers and school personnel demonstrate outside the House of Delegates chamber last week at the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Frustrated about wages, working conditions, and other education issues, teachers are continuing to walk out of their classrooms.

Labor strife spiked last year as teachers in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington state, and West Virginia took to the streets to protest.

Now, just as Denver teachers returned to their classrooms after a nine-day strike, teachers in West Virginia once again went on strike as did their counterparts in Oakland, Calif.

But the flavor of the teacher strikes has changed somewhat. Unlike last year, when teachers across the country shared a similar narrative of crumbling classrooms, unrestrained class sizes, and stagnant paychecks, the strike demands now are far-reaching. Teachers are pushing back against education reform policies like charter schools and performance-based pay. They’re also fighting for social-justice initiatives, like sanctuary protections for undocumented students.

West Virginia teachers, who started it all last spring, walked out again last week in protest of a broad-based education bill that, among other provisions, would have created the state’s first charter schools and allowed education savings accounts for parents to pay for private school. They ended their two-day strike after lawmakers did not act on the doomed measure.

The bill “is now dead. It’s gone,” said Fred Albert, the president of the American Federation of Teachers’ West Virginia chapter. “So our voices were heard.”

In Oakland, meanwhile, the city’s 3,000 teachers, who headed to the picket lines Feb. 21, are demanding a 12 percent retroactive raise covering 2017 to 2020 to compensate for what they say are among the lowest salaries for public school teachers in the exorbitantly expensive San Francisco Bay Area. They also want the district to hire more counselors to support students and more full-time nurses.

A teacher’s starting salary in the district is $46,500 a year, and the average salary is $63,000, according to the district’s teachers’ union. By comparison, a starting teacher makes $51,000 a year in neighboring Berkeley, where the average salary is $75,000.

While the statewide labor actions last year were mostly organized through grassroots Facebook groups, the strikes in major cities have been led by strong unions.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the February 27, 2019 edition of Education Week as Teacher Activism Persists in U.S.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Reimagining Grading in K-12 Schools: A Conversation on the Value of Standards-Based Grading
Hear from K-12 educational leaders and explore standards-based grading benefits and implementation strategies and challenges
Content provided by Otus
Reading & Literacy Webinar How Background Knowledge Fits Into the ‘Science of Reading’ 
Join our webinar to learn research-backed strategies for enhancing reading comprehension and building cultural responsiveness in the classroom.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Innovative Strategies for Data & Assessments
Join our webinar to learn strategies for actionable instruction using assessment & analysis.
Content provided by Edulastic

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession It Could Get a Whole Lot Easier to Teach in a Different State
The Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact would grant full licensing reciprocity to incoming teachers who move to a participating state.
5 min read
Illustration of a 3D map with arrows going all over the states.
iStock/Getty
Teaching Profession Opinion I Quit Teaching for Ed Tech. Here's How It Turned Out
Before you leave the teaching profession for another career, here are some things to consider.
Amma Ababio
4 min read
Illustration of a professional woman at the door opening to a bright exterior with computer code in the air.
E+/Getty
Teaching Profession In L.A., Teachers and Parents Raise Money for Striking Service Workers
Many service workers cannot afford to miss work during the three-day strike. Teachers and parents are stepping in to help.
Delilah Brumer, Daily Breeze
3 min read
Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, with Max Arias, executive director of the Service Employees International SEIU Local 99 union, speak to thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District teachers and SEIU members rallying outside the LAUSD headquarters in Los Angeles Tuesday, March 21, 2023.
A crowd of attendees at a joint rally by United Teachers of Los Angeles and SEIU 99 gathers in front of City Hall on March 15, 2023, in Los Angeles, Calif.
Damian Dovarganes/AP
Teaching Profession Q&A Los Angeles Educators Are Set to Strike. Will Teachers Elsewhere Follow Suit?
Unions in cities have become more aggressive—and low wages coupled with a demand for talent are giving them leverage.
6 min read
Thousands of LAUSD education workers calling on LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to use the district’s $4.9 billion in reserves to invest in staff, students, and communities rally at Grand Park in front of Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles on March 15, 2023.
Thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District educators call on Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to use the district’s nearly $5 billion in reserves to invest in staff, students, and communities at a rally at the city's Grand Park on March 15, 2023.
Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News via TNS