The residents of Oklahoma want more government funding for schools and teachers, yet all they get are tax cuts for the rich and a government so strangled it can’t even deliver basic services (some Oklahoma school districts have been reduced to 4 days and students forced to sit on the floor). The GOP-controlled legislature and Governor are ruining that state and those children’s futures (of course the children of wealthy parents are doing just fine in their private schools and better off districts).
These teachers aren’t simply striking for higher wages for themselves (which they also deserve), but so that schools receive adequate funding. Gov. Fallin can make this offensive and ridiculous comparison all she wants, but these teachers aren’t acting like spoiled teenagers; they’re acting like mature adults who’re forced to deal with an unnecessary situation of extraordinary shortages because their representatives are only concerned about representing the Koch brothers and other wealthy interests.
They just passed a big raise in taxes to put teacher pay on par with the national average.
Yes they need to do more but that's a pretty big thing to talk as if it didn't happen.
It’s not just about the teacher pay. That’s not even why this strike is occurring. It’s happening because even with pay increases other school staff are underpaid and schools remain underfunded. There are still districts where they’re reduced to only 4 school days, textbooks remain outdated, and so on. None of that has changed. That’s why the teachers refuse to end the strike.
Unlike the state representatives, the teachers are actually doing something to help the students of Oklahoma.
