What Happened to 2018 As The Year of the Teacher?
This year teachers took their mission way beyond the classroom.
Starting in West Virginia, we staged half-a-dozen walkouts in red states across the country demanding a better investment in children’s educations and often getting it.
Then we took that momentum and stormed our state capitals and Washington, DC, with thousands of grassroots campaigns that translated into seats in government.
It was so effective and unprecedented that the story began circulating that 2018 would be known as “The Year of the Teacher.”
And then, just as suddenly, the story stopped.
No more headlines. No more editorials. No more exposes.
So what happened?
The gum in the works seems to have been a story in The Atlantic by Alia Wong called “The Questionable Year of the Teacher Politician.”
In it, she writes that the teacher insurgence was overblown by unions and marks little more than a moment in time and not an authentic movement.
It really comes down to a numbers game. Numerous sources cite high numbers of teachers running for office. Wong disputes them.
National Education Association (NEA) senior political director Carrie Pugh says about CONTINUE READING: What Happened to 2018 As The Year of the Teacher? | gadflyonthewallblog
