Posted on 02/18/2018 3:44:54 AM PST by buckalfa
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — There will be no public school next Thursday or Friday anywhere in West Virginia. Whether classes resume on Monday remained up in the air. The West Virginia teachers unions and service personnel organizations all agreed to authorize the first ever walkout in all 55 counties of teachers and service personnel.
“We’re done. We’re done waiting. We waited and have given them chances and they didn’t want to take it seriously,” said Teacher Christiana Frye of Cabell Midland High School. “Honestly I’m praying two days is enough because some people can’t afford to be out longer than that, but the way they’ve treated us so far I don’t know that it will.”
Cathy Pizzino, a teacher at Robert C. Byrd High School in Clarksburg was dug in for whatever it takes.
“We’ll be out a whole hell of a lot longer than two days,” she said. “I’m ready for 20, 30 whatever it is. I told my kids, it’s going to be a long haul.”
Thousands of teachers stood more than two hours in a cold and driving rain on Saturday, covering the Lincoln Plaza of the State Capitol. There, they pledged solidarity and believe the work stoppage will be the pressure needed to get improvements. The teachers agreed pay was an issue, but by no means the only issue.
“It’s the PEIA, it’s the wanting to take our seniority, it’s allowing uncertified teachers to come in and teach our classes,” said Donna Roberts who teaches at Sherman Elementary in Boone County. “It’s about a whole lot more than a paycheck.”
“I don’t think it’s fair that my benefits are determined by my husband’s or my family’s total income,” added Brenda Bolyard a teacher in Taylor County. “It’s ridiculous.”
While most agree the work stoppage is necessary, they also agreed it was worrisome to know students will not be in school those days.
“It’s not anything we want to do,” Roberts added. “But when we’re facing not being able to pay our bills month to month, we have to do something.”
“I actually have two children in the school system myself and even if I wasn’t a teacher, I’d be right there with their teachers,” said Frye. “They are helping to shape my children’s future and we are worried about the students.”
Although a strike by public employees in is illegal, West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee indicated on MetroNews Talkline it isn’t something the union considered a factor.
“What are they going to do, fire 15,000 people?” Lee rhetorically asked when questioned about the legality of the work stoppage.
PATCO learned the hard way: You’re Fired!
I agree teachers are underpaid, but that’s their own fault since it is their unions and school systems that spend far more on administration (buildings, admin staff, etc) than is spent on school buildings, teacher salaries, and learning materials. They all desire to move up to the admin buildings.
True story: Election 2000. Held at a new high school the school system begged money to build as “absolutely necessary”. 1996 we voted in the bond for it.
AS we stood in line to vote in 2000, everyone, I mean everyone, commented on the polished granite in that school. Millions were spend on a lavish facility. That 1996 bond was supposed to buy multiple high schools and it built just that one.
We voted down the next few school bond issues.
I now tend to believe that what's happened is that union employees (public or private) have just maintained the wages and benefits that used to be the norm for most private sector workers, too.
What's happened in the interim is that we have allowed our industry to be hollowed out by "free trade" and excessive immigration (both legal and illegal) combined with the dominance of the financial sector have redirected more of the national income from labor to capital.
Fix the underlying economic problems and the rest go away: everyone makes more money, job security increases, the tax base expands and public services can be adequately funded while deficits decrease.
Just like it was from '45 to '75 when our economy was protected and immigration was minimal.
What I found weird is that these are native West Virginians. Yes, there are A LOT of out of state folks flocking to WV, but the ones I’ve met are conservative like us. Many West Virginians seem like an oxymoron to me. They’re self sufficient - heating their homes with wood, owning chickens and so on. Yet, they’ll gladly live off of government handouts at the same time. The cashiers around here dread the first of the month.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Justice does here.
Remember he changed from Republican-to-Rat-to-Republican. He’s primarily an opportunist! He wants to run against Shelly Moore Capito for he Senate seat.
What’s the issue - PEIA going broke? Too little coming in, too much going out?
I am originally from WV, retiring back there in a year
The story of PEIA is the old one of offering a Cadillac benefits package in exchange for lower working pay. As more retirees hit the plan the actuarial health of the plan started to go down hill 30 years ago. Of course the state kept kicking the can down the road until now. Think of this as a precursor to the uproar that will happen when means testing is applied to Medicare and Social Security. It needs done, will the politicians have the courage?
“Protect you from what, exactly?”
The real world.
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