West Virginia Teachers Went on Strike Again to Protest School Privatization. They Stayed on Strike to Send Their Lawmakers a Message
Most of the state’s public schools were shut down for a second day.
Teachers in West Virginia stayed on strike Wednesday, February 20, after a tense standoff with state lawmakers over education legislation. As reported by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, leaders from West Virginia’s major school-employee labor unions called for a strike starting February 19. On Tuesday, 54 of the state’s 55 school districts shut down as teachers walked out.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and Fred Albert, the president of AFT West Virginia, wrote in a statement that at issue was an education overhaul bill they say is a threat to public education funding.
“The state Senate is trying for a second time this year to ram through a so-called education bill that defunds public education, retaliates against teachers who stood up for their students last year, and appears to be driven by outside wealthy interests like Americans for Prosperity that, like Betsy DeVos, want to eliminate public schools,” wrote Albert and Weingarten in their statement. The reference to DeVos, President Donald Trump’s secretary of education, seeks to link the bill at play in West Virginia to the secretary’s controversial school-choice policies.
Striking educators have already filled the House gallery in West Virginia's capitol building, awaiting today's legislative discussion of the Republicans' bill introducing school privatization into the state. In the rotunda, thousands are chanting "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!" pic.twitter.com/0FRKzk2zMc— Eric Blanc (@_ericblanc) February 19, 2019
Albert and Weingarten accused the state Senate of “ramming through a secret bill on a purely partisan vote,” a reference to a broad education bill that would allow allocating public funds for private education and allow the first-ever charter schools to open in West Virginia, according to the CONTINUE READING: West Virginia Teachers Went on Strike Again to Protest School Privatization. They Stayed on Strike to Send Their Lawmakers a Message - Teen Vogue