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Saturday, January 26, 2019

CURMUDGUCATION: WV: Legislative Extortion

CURMUDGUCATION: WV: Legislative Extortion

WV: Legislative Extortion


Last spring, West Virginia's teachers stood up and stood up loud, shutting down every single school in the state. They were out with five demands-- better wages, health insurance, defeating an expansion of charter schools, keeping seniority, and killing a "paycheck protection" bill. They won, the governor signed a pay raise, and teachers won the right to shout at the end, "Who made history? We made history!"

They should have forced the legislature to swear "No take backs."

Republicans in the West Virginia Senate have introduced a bill that aims to undo some of the results of the 2018 strike.

"This is a vision that’s been worked on with input from many,” said Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson. She forgot to say many what, as the bill, wit versions clocking in at well over 100 pages (one draft version is online here), was put together with zero input from the teachers union.

That makes sense, since the goal here is to shaft West Virginia's teachers yet again.


A picturesque WV cliff off which the WV GOP would like to throw public ed
Teachers struck for a 5% wage hike; the bill has a 5% average wage hike. Teachers struck for CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: WV: Legislative Extortion