CNN
Mon March 5, 2018 "Is the West Virginia teachers' strike the future of American labor?" by Gregory Krieg The event is about the Teacher’s strike in West Virginia that started in February 22, 2018. The strike of 22,000 teachers has froced all schools in the 55 counties across the state to close. The obvious impetus for the strike lies in the state’s terrible treatment of its teachers, whose pay ranked 48th nationally in 2016. February 22, was the rise of a teacher's strike in west virginia. First, to secure a meaningful raise for educators whose compensation is among the lowest in the country and, second, though perhaps even more important, to come up with a fix for the Public Employees Insurance Agency, their embattled health coverage program. The strike kept about 277,000 students and 35,000 employees across the state's public schools out of classrooms, according to the AP, forcing parents to find day care and make other arrangements for their children. Missed school days must be made up, but individual counties will decide whether to add days to the end of the school year. The teachers were not just demanding a pay raise; they were also calling for reforms to the state’s beleaguered Public Employees Insurance Agency, or PEIA, which is meant to provide all public employees with affordable health insurance. When it comes to teacher salaries, West Virginia ranks 48th in the nation, according to National Tacher’s association. And it's one of only five states where teacher wages actually went down between 2015 and 2016. That would explain why nearly 20,000 teachers and about 13,000 school service personnel are battling the state's government for better benefits and higher pay. The West Virginia teachers' strike began on February 22, 2018 yet it barely came to an agreement this month. The typical teacher in the state was paid $45,622 a year, compared to the national average of $58,353. I think that this event had to be done sooner or later. In my perspective, I believe, that it shouldn't have some to this extent. I think it's very unecessary to have to go through a teacher's strike, but after all it's what we needed in order to comme to an agreement and to settle or come up with a solution. It's very depressing to see that it got this far to have the teacher's strike. I really hope that this was a wake up call to the nation in regards to the teachers' salary. I will comment on Paulina's and Jenny's blog.
4 Comments
Paulina
3/7/2018 06:59:34 pm
I think your writing was very detailed and I really like the article you chose. I can't believe teachers aren't payed a good amount and don't have benefits if they are a huge part in kids knowledge. Why do you think it had to come down to schools closing and protests to get the attention of the government and for them to actually listen to them?
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Jenny
3/9/2018 12:37:40 pm
I think that this article you chose is very interesting. It is crazy to hear that the typical teacher in the state wasn't even getting paid as a average teacher salary. I think that the argument you made was good because I agree that their should be a better way for the government to listen to the teachers and others, but it would be really hard for them to actually listen. Do you think that problems like this will continue to happen in other states as well? What do you think caused the teacher's salaries in this state to go down?
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Piper
3/13/2018 08:11:09 pm
Your write up about this even is very nice and detailed, the topic you chose is very relevant to today because of the fact students are not in school. The teachers pay is unjust for what they are doing. If you were one of those students how would you react?
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Pablo
6/13/2018 09:20:46 am
this is very nice and detailed I think thta you did a good job
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AuthorPaola Toledo Real Archives
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