Striking West Virginia Teachers Remind Us Teaching Is Work

Last week, the teachers of West Virginia pulled off something remarkable. For the first time in 28 years, every teacher in the state went on strike, which has now shuttered classrooms in all 55 counties for six days (though they made sure that undernourished students wouldn’t go hungry).

The teachers voted overwhelmingly to walk off the job to protest stagnant pay, particularly in the face of rising health care costs that eat into their earnings. Gov. Jim Justice (R) had just signed legislation that would give them a 2 percent raise in July and a 1 percent raise in the following two years — but teachers were unified in saying that wasn’t enough. There hasn’t been an across-the-board raise for teachers or other public employees in the state since 2014, and West Virginia ranked 48th out of all states for its average teacher salaries in 2016.

“I never dreamed 19 years ago when I started teaching that I would have to work a second job to provide for my kids,” Rebecca Diamond, a second grade teacher at Kellogg Elementary School who also works as a cashier at Hardee’s on the weekend, told HuffPost’s Dave Jamieson. “I knew teaching wouldn’t make [me] billions, but I thought it would be enough.”


Source : huffingtonpost