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On the heels of West Virginia’s historic nine-day teacher strike, in which the Republican-controlled legislature finally relented to teachers’ demands for a five percent raise, teachers in Oklahoma are now threatening to do the same.
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Last year, Oklahoma’s Republican-controlled legislature refused to enact a pay increase for teachers – offset by a one percent increase in the state sales tax – but was voted down. This year, the legislature again failed the enact any change after the GOP-led chamber introduced a doomed-from-the-start tax on cigarettes and motor vehicle fuel to offset the pay increase. The legislation failed to pass.
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One Oklahoma teacher, Beth Wallis, took to Facebook to explain just how the constant Republican-led cuts to education have affected her and her students in a heartwrenching post.
Incredible Facebook post from an Oklahoma teacher, worth a read pic.twitter.com/D1VQpHT5HK
— Meagan Day (@meaganmday) March 7, 2018
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“We are taking action because our legislature has proven to us that it’s never just going to ‘work itself out,’ because they’ve had damn well over a decade to figure this out,” the teacher wrote.
Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oklahoma teachers rank dead last in the United States for teacher salary, earning on average only $42,460 per year.
While Republicans predicate their entire economic policies on a staunch unwillingness to raise taxes, their communities are suffering, the children are suffering, and education is being decimated. Perhaps a much needed strike will finally paint that picture for them.
Follow Brian Tyler Cohen on Facebook and Twitter.
