Senator Manchin urges Senate Republicans to end statewide teacher

The 1990 strike came after Caperton announced there were no raises for education personnel in that year’s state budget.

With the weekend legislative session failing to meet the demands of educators across the state-a long-term revenue stream to support PEIA, a 5 percent pay raise for teachers and permanent tabling of bills created to privatize education-schools will be closed going into the new week.

“Our teachers are just trying to survive”, she said. He’s on the line.

The show of support by thousands didn’t immediately sway the lawmakers, who failed to agree on a 5 percent pay raise that would end the strike, forcing districts to cancel school again Tuesday. The bill went to the state House, which rejected the Senate version.

“We’ve got to end this”. The Senate decided that they wanted to change that at the last moment after seven days of being on the lines and at the Capitol chanting.

“When we knew we were going on strike we upped our game”, Vannest said.

Because West Virginia has no collective bargaining, the associations needed to ask county bodies to provide them with the number of teachers in favor of or opposed to, statewide action, in whatever form that took. In 1990, after a four-day teacher walkout, the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a resolution raising $230 million in new revenue to fund teacher pay raises and a slew of other reforms, including class-size limitations and mandatory kindergarten. In the Senate, it was defeated 19-15. “Do we really want to put people in that position?” “I stand with them in their fight for justice and dignity”.

West Virginia teachers on Monday entered the eighth day of a strike begun February 22 seeking a salary increase and more affordable health care.

LEE: We’re 48th in the nation in pay.

Senators voted for a 4 percent raise for teachers, service personnel and state troopers.

INSKEEP: Wait a minute. Utah, which spends the biggest share, has some one of the lowest median levels of public school teacher pay.

“We are absolutely bound by our duty to evaluate that with a fine-tooth comb”, he said. According to Justice, the Legislature is now in the process of giving these two financial windfalls away for free to out-of-state corporations. The strike began after Jim Justice, the state’s billionaire governor, signed legislation which promised a 2 percent pay increase for all state employees, beginning in July, and followed by a 1 percent pay increase for teachers starting in 2020.

INSKEEP: With a 5 percent raise, you’re still going to be lower than surrounding states, aren’t you?

“We’ve got to unite as school systems”. And that’s what we’re looking for.

Educators, school staff and their supporters have descended on the state Capitol, holding daily rallies outside legislative chambers where they chant “55 United”, a reference to West Virginia’s 55 counties. “These people (on strike) feel like they have become a political football and they are standing up for public education”.

INSKEEP: The 19 members, the majority of the Senate that turned aside that deal.

Ryan Quinn, thank you very much for being here.

Lita Blanc, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, started a GoFundMe page on March 4 to raise money to feed the protesters at the West Virginia state capitol building.