Oklahoma's not the only place where teachers are paid less than Costco cashiers. Earlier today, 20,000 West Virginia teachers returned to classrooms following a successful four-day walkout over pay and benefits.
Here are the details via Newsweek:
Nearly 20,000 West Virginia teachers will return to their classrooms on Thursday after the state's governor announced a bump to teachers' salaries Tuesday.
Teachers will now receive a five percent pay raise this year, Governor Jim Justice said. All other state employees will see a three percent increase.
The strike—the largest in state history — began after Justice signed a bill last Wednesday mandating a two percent teacher salary raise starting in July, with an additional one percent raise slated for 2020 and 2021.
The state's teachers, who earn about $45,000 a year on average, said it wasn't enough, and also demanded a fix to health care. Their average salary ranked 48th in the nation in 2016, according to the National Education Association.
Did you catch that last part? West Virginia teachers went on strike because their 2% raise "wasn't enough." Heh. I bet Oklahoma teachers, at least the ones who haven't already fled for greener pastures, wish they had that problem.
The success of what happened in West Virginia got me thinking – why doesn't the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) use its power, might and resources to organize a teacher strike? What do teachers have to lose? Oklahoma already ranks 50th in the country in teacher pay. If a strike / walk out worked in West Virginia – which is one of a few states actually worse than Oklahoma – it could work here, too... right?