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Here’s Why Teachers Are Still Walking Out Despite $6000 Raises
Western Journalism ^ | April 2, 2018 | Kevin Whiteley

Posted on 04/04/2018 7:53:12 AM PDT by Cheerio

Thousands of Oklahoma teachers walked out of school Monday and protested at the state capitol for higher salaries and increased funding.

Oklahoma legislators approved a $6,100 raise for state teachers across the board in an attempt to evade the walk-out, but teachers proceeded with the protest, NBC News reported.

“My niece sits on the floor in her middle school English class in Moore, Oklahoma, because they’re overloaded into the class and don’t have enough furniture,” Edmond Public Schools elementary teacher Carrie Akins told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“My son in ninth grade had to get an override on his schedule because his Spanish class was too full … he was student number 41 in the class. As a state, we have failed them.”

(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Oklahoma
KEYWORDS: school; teachers; union
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To: Beagle8U

You don’t major in Ed anymore if you want to teach above 5th grade. You major in a subject and get a Masters in Ed. Something to do with accreditation.


41 posted on 04/04/2018 8:23:55 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
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To: Cheerio

What a bunch of cry babies

When I went to school the average size of a class was 38 students. Obviously some larger some smaller (though never at the twenty count). Some classes were held in portables put up during the thirties and forties. They had minimal heat and definitely no ac.

No wonder these children never get ready for college. They would wet themselves walking into an intro chem class of five hundred


42 posted on 04/04/2018 8:25:00 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Mr. K
You are 100% correct. The percentage of the budget going to classroom supplies, teachers and teaching has been in constant decline for decades. Counseling personnel, Special Ed everything, specialized infrastructure (like a million dollar theater, or a multi-million-dollar swimming venue, etc), servicing the pension fund (thank you corrupt and anti-education unions), and the endless stream of "innovative new programs!!!!" all take much higher priority than anything that actually facilitates classroom instruction on the 3 R's.

(Note #1: schools are funded by the state based on their student population... so schools with 40 kids per room should be getting a river of funds...)

(Note #2: Special Ed students bring in more state and federal dollars per student, so all US schools literally have a vested interest in putting a Special Ed label on every child possible.)

43 posted on 04/04/2018 8:25:07 AM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: Iron Munro

The focus of the strike is not education. It is Republicans. Read the news stories. The GOP is always prominent in the story


44 posted on 04/04/2018 8:25:23 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
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To: Cheerio

A friend of mine used to complain that his school teacher wife was not eligible for Social Security. Finally, I responded, “Wow, that IS unfair. All those years of working and paying into Social Security and she doesn’t get to collect. She DOES pay into Social Security doesn’t she?” His answer was, “No, but...” Our conversation ended at that point.

I believe it was the huge educational unions that pushed for teacher pensions rather than Social Security. Blame THEM!


45 posted on 04/04/2018 8:25:27 AM PDT by JWNM
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To: originalbuckeye

Not only do they only work 9 months out of the year, they only work part-time for that 9 months!

Most work about 5 hours a day, that’s it!


46 posted on 04/04/2018 8:25:54 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Liberals can kiss my bitter clingers!)
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To: Caribou

The teachers I talk to don’t work 8 hour days. 12 hour days is typical for those who are conscientious about grading homework and doing lesson plans.

Add in student help hours after school, mandatory supervision of a student activity, parent meetings, staff meeting, mandatory continuing education hours, and the insane individualized lesson plans and targets for each student.

Yes, there are teachers who are sitting pretty after twenty years. lesson plans settled and the salary maxing out, and teachers who put in minimum effort at reading and grading student work.

But I have never talked to a teacher who did 8 hour days 9 months a year. The male teachers do things like pool management and yard work during the summer to make ends meet for their families.


47 posted on 04/04/2018 8:27:50 AM PDT by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: originalbuckeye

we’ve been indoctrinated to believe that teachers somehow are poorly paid...they are not....


48 posted on 04/04/2018 8:28:23 AM PDT by cherry
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To: Iron Munro

Speaking of free, some liberals think college should be free.

Stanford, for one, is a private college and using stats from their website, they rake in $275 million per year in tuition.

I estimate that it would cost of $2 TRILLION a year to pay the tuition at all colleges.

Liberals only have feelings not cold hard facts.


49 posted on 04/04/2018 8:28:40 AM PDT by Caribou ( www.ktok.com Red State Radio free streaming.)
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To: Caribou

Just an aside to your commentary......a few years ago, LA Unified School District decided that every child should have an IPad. No surprise to those of us who can think, over 50% of those iPads went ‘missing’ in the first few weeks of the program. I haven’t read any follow-ups on that story, but I suspect those IPads stayed ‘in the wind’.


50 posted on 04/04/2018 8:31:36 AM PDT by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell.)
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To: AppyPappy

Class materials and overcrowding is the other side. Being petulant will cause nothing but problems. They need to walk out next fall and not now with no time to make up the time loss.

This walkout is indefinite as I see it, they want all or nothing. That’s not how to succeed.


51 posted on 04/04/2018 8:32:25 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (All I know is what I read in the papers.)
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To: AppyPappy

A masters in ED is still filled with the bottom of the barrel.


52 posted on 04/04/2018 8:33:32 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Liberals can kiss my bitter clingers!)
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To: Cheerio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVyNlJUKgug

The machine..


53 posted on 04/04/2018 8:37:14 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Liberals can kiss my bitter clingers!)
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To: Cheerio

Thousands for teachers unions, exspensive perks for teachers, pennies for kids.


54 posted on 04/04/2018 8:38:47 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: TLI
And the kid "sitting on the floor?"

I'd imagine that they were "sitting on the floor" temporarily until a chair could be moved in from another room. But, "Momentary Slight Inconvenience" is not as attention getting as "My Kid is Abused".

Wonder how many Administrators are making six-figure-salaries at this poor, overburdened school? And how many teacher's union reps are making six-figure salaries, as well? OR, are those inconvenient questions to be asking....

55 posted on 04/04/2018 8:38:52 AM PDT by wbill
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To: fishtank

Spanish is no longer a FOREIGN language. English is.....................


56 posted on 04/04/2018 8:41:21 AM PDT by Red Badger (The people who call Trump a tyrant are the same people who want the president to confiscate weapons.)
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To: heartwood
It is all based on averages as I stated. Eight is an average I chose. I also was only talking about STARTING pay.

I agree that some teachers work more, some work less depending on how dedicated they are and want to truely help the kids. There are some who don't work very much.

My daughter was a elementary teacher, working in a rough school. She should of been paid hazard pay because of the problems she ran into with some parents.

I have custody of two grandkids who are in elementary school so I am familiar with the situation in at least one school.

I was in the military for 20 years and worked many 12 hour days without extra pay. It's the nature of the jobs. And my pay was less than the STARTING pay was for teachers plus deploying leaving a spouse to raise the kids and take care of the house and cars.

As for those who work extra, it might be because federal and state taxes are too high or they want to go on ship cruise. Or they like to keep busy.

57 posted on 04/04/2018 8:41:58 AM PDT by Caribou ( www.ktok.com Red State Radio free streaming.)
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To: Beagle8U
Horse$hit! I’d bet every new teacher job opening would have 100 qualified applications instantly.

I'm not sure where you're getting your preconceived notion from, but open teaching positions are not met with floods of qualified resumes. Most districts are lucky to get 5-10 resumes total for a new opening these days... and since most position-seeking teachers are sending out 10-20 resumes, the school has to make the hire fast, before those 5-10 teachers are no longer available.

Nobody wants to go to the urban nightmare schools, few want to deal with the entitlement mentality of most kids 8th grade and up, and few want to trade "summers off!!!" for being disrespected by parents, students, AND administrators for the other 9 months, and facing an ever-increasing demand for more and more extra daily paperwork (IEPs) and compliance with every new state and federal scheme, all while making a tepid salary for first-year hires ($750/wk before taxes and classroom supplies and union dues), ... making less than the janitors and cafeteria ladies. Anyone with skills will seek other opportunities.

The majority of those going into education today are the "mommies" who simply cannot have enough K-4th graders around, and basically play together and do easy yet productive things for 8 hours each day. THOSE are not in short supply. They're great people, and do good work... but everything after 5th grade is a train wreck.

NY Post, FEB 14 2018: Why Americas Teacher Shortage Is Going to Get Worse

58 posted on 04/04/2018 8:43:38 AM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
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To: Red Badger
Spanish is no longer a FOREIGN language. English is.....................

Only in the US, in the rest of the world, people are falling over each other trying to learn English.

59 posted on 04/04/2018 8:44:14 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: originalbuckeye

I have two sisters who teach in Kansas and the district they work are giving every kid from 8th and above a laptop of some type. Stupid.

Pencil and paper are cheaper but Apple and other makers can’t make a killing on selling their equipment to schools.


60 posted on 04/04/2018 8:45:54 AM PDT by Caribou ( www.ktok.com Red State Radio free streaming.)
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