This seems like an important movement that could grow, and perhaps is worthy of its own thread.

I believe my history here is accurate. In the days of the labor movement, once the powerful realized that organized labor was not something they were going to be able to beat out of existence or perpetually ignore -- they benefitted to some extent on setting out formalize the union system for the sake of stability and certainty.

At least when you have a union, you know who you are negotiating with, you know what the terms of the agreement are, you know what will satisfy things, you know how long the agreement lasts, etc. Also the labor being represented has someone that they trust on their side to give them the straight reality of what can be done and what cannot be done.

Part of what you are seeing in Oklahoma for example is the chaos created by the lack of any rules surrounding collective bargaining. The legislature is having to come up with new tax revenue in a matter of days, rather than being able to plan things out over the course of years. Once they passed one package, enough teachers said 'not good enough' and they are back scrambling.

You can't outlaw or deny collective bargaining anymore effectively than you can set price controls on gasoline.

I believe something you may see come out of these movements is a remembrance of how you do want some semblance of recognized labor power to avoid this sort of all out chaos.

I think teachers in most of these deep red hell holes would have been fine to go on getting exploited. But the GOP can't help itself, and now that they're on food stamps the teachers are actually fighting back.

Maybe the teachers can work part time at Walmart and the Walmart workers can help at the schools? Then we can all pitch in with a few blocks of solidified cheez whiz and everybody is happy.

I teach at a high school in VA and really feel for these teachers. The 2016 OK Teacher of the Year had to leave the state to support his family. The GOP on the other hand, is trying to paint them as greedy - like the governonor's quote that teachers striking is "like teenagers who want a better car."

It really shows how little respect teachers get. Unlike the military, there is not a pattern of thanking teachers for their service. In fact, there are not great reasons to go into education these days in the United States. Which is bad for America long-term.

The GOP at work. **** the GOP. Being a teacher in CA is so much better than being a teacher in these backwards places.

The only thing that can stop a bad teacher being paid poverty wages is a good teacher being paid poverty wages.

I wonder if the military being fairly low paying is a factor. You have to work your way up to officer to make more than $37,000 a year. It's been that way for a while, my in laws were both teachers in the early '80s and my FIL quit to work for less money at the IRS because he was at least guaranteed to not be laid off every year.

Republicans and their voters hate workers, love their corporate overlords. Every time there's a worker owner dispute they always side with the owner. I don't get it either.

GOP, when you make the point they're getting paid as well as teenagers and having no realization at all that's the point they're also making.

isn't oklahoma 4 day school weeks now? Teachers usually get a decent salary given they get 3months a year off + weekends + holidays + a big fat winter vacation.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.was...a89_story.html

Education is one of the principal long term solutions to economic inequality. So the right hates it.

Military top line pay is not a great comparison point because they free housing on top of that.

Also because the military are social parasites, whereas teachers do something positive.

Military personnel get a lot of auxiliary benefits, such as the best and most respected job training programs in the country. Other than a bachelor’s degree, two years in the military with promotions, especially with officer experience, is one of the most valuable things to have one your resume.

And GI bill.

The oklahoma legislature is ridiculously stupid. They paraded around the idea that the state lottery money would be used for education, however they then removed all the regular funding from education.

OK is set to give 800 million dollars to prisons though.

I remember a few years back, Chris Christie at a town hall telling a teacher in NJ that she should stop whining about her pay, because she freely chose a career that paid crap wages. Video went viral and Christie became a favorite of the right wing derposhere.

Pretty much sums up what the GOP thinks of teachers. They don't see them as important educators shaping young minds. They see them as too dumb and/or lazy to make real money selling credit default swaps on wall street.

High School teachers have a median wage of 58k in the US; they only work ~190 days a year; and nearly all of them are eligible for defined benefit pensions.

Contrast that to the median wage of a holder of a Bachelors degree at 60k; the fact the average American worker gets 10 paid days off per year (thats 250 working days); and only 2% of private workers receive defined benefit pension.

I'd say teachers have it pretty good.

As always, it's telling when someone's response to that disparity is to suggest teachers (or just public workers in general, who always get this kind of treatment) need to be knocked down a peg rather than wonder why things have gotten so ****ty for the entire working class

Do you think that when school is in session teachers work only 40 hours per week?

Teaching classes, lesson planning, assignment grading, communicating with parents, etc., don't all get accomplished between 7:30 am and 3:30 pm, five days per week.

You really think they get to that median wage by having that much holidays?

Also it's the median wage for the whole country, not for these specific states.

I know why things have gotten ****ty for the entire working class.

At issue itt is the pay of US teachers, not income inequality in general.

Feel free to show where I said teachers need to be knocked down a peg.

I'm of the opinion that the lot of those worse off need to be improved before a protected classes fortunes are further raised mostly on the backs of the downtrodden.

Feel free to dispute me on the facts.

Do you know that many professionals work much more than 40 hours per week, often working late nights and weekends to make a deadline?

Teachers get so many random holidays and days off during the school year I'd be surprised if the break 40 hours per week averaged through non summer months.

Teachers get something on the order of 10 - 12 weeks paid vacation a year vs the average workers 2.

There isn't conclusive data on how many hours teachers actually work b/c shockingly people can't be relied on to accurately report their own hours worked.

The best I can find puts teachers at 38.5 hours per week during the school year; but again I don't find it conclusive as I know beyond a doubt that the same study is incorrect at putting teachers average hours worked at 21.5 hours per week in the summer.

And again when you account for defined benefit pensions they get much more compensation.

If we weren't continually sending our soldiers overseas to develop life long physical and mental disabilities, the US military would be the best jobs program in the history of the world.

I don't understand what you are saying. The median wage I posted is indisputable; as is the fact there is something on the order of 190 working days in a teachers work year; basically, 180 school days plus a week each of pre and post planning.

It's true these states fare much worse than the median, but a cursory glance at Q3 2017 BLS income doesn't suggest that these teachers are much worse relative to their peers. Put another way: yea these teachers got it worse than average, but so does everyone else in their respective states who isn't in finance or healthcare.

Teachers salaries are almost wholly financed from the state level down.

...but then you'd be shifting goalposts away from "median degree holder" to "median degree holder that also works many unpaid overtime hours per week", feel free to provide stats for that group of people to compare to teachers

58k is total crap pay tho. lol at raising a family on that amount.