Tag: Strike action

So far in 2019 strikes have broken out in Los Angeles and Oakland in California, Denver in Colorado and in Virginia and West Virginia, notching up notable wins in terms of pay raises and better working conditions. Kappier explained classrooms in Oakland’s school district are too large, her history textbooks are outdated, schools in the district don’t have nurses, adequate staffing of counselors, no librarians, and music and art programs are non-existent at some schools in the district. The issues facing public schools in Oakland are similar to other school districts across America where teachers led a 30-year high in strikes in 2018. A common theme of these walkouts is drastic declines in public funding schools, where many states have not replenished cuts made to public education during the 2008 economic recession. Leachman co-authored a November 2017 report that found 29 states were funding less per student in 2015 than they were in 2008. Last week, teachers in West Virginia went out on strike again for two days to protest a bill being pushed in the state senate that would tie teacher pay raises to funding for charter schools. “The issue last year was mainly over benefits. “At the school I’m at, the students are lucky enough to have one parent. “That translates to a classroom where kids don’t have a lot of prospects, they don’t have a lot of hope and it’s very difficult in terms of teaching them because a lot of their basic needs are not met.” Around 31,000 teachers in Los Angeles started off 2019’s strike wave in the nation’s second largest school district, walking out for seven days before settling on an agreement that included a pay raise, increase of support staff, and a plan to reduce class sizes to mandated caps. So the only reason to allow a strike is to test the strength of the union.

When the West Virginia governor and legislature agreed last week to boost teacher salaries, it represented a major victory and show of political strength for the educators who had walked out on strike nine days earlier. But the strike also illustrates the ways that political debates still reflect the long-standing dominance of men in American politics and how collective action led by female teachers was able to confront and overcome what my research calls a “legacy of patriarchy.” In my book manuscript, “Educating the Nation: Gender, Federalism and Women’s Empowerment in the United States,” I define the legacy of patriarchy in the United States as consisting of two features. First, men no longer dominate women as they once did in American society, with women now having more political power. Before passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, many American women lacked the right to vote. In addition, women in many states gained the right to vote in school elections and were elected to county and state superintendent positions. Women’s power in the teaching profession Second, in addition to votes, occupational standing empowers women politically as they challenge patriarchy and its legacies. And while of course many teachers in West Virginia are men, teachers organizations in the state are mostly led by women. Seventy percent of 51 county presidents in West Virginia’s NEA affiliate and 59 percent of 37 county presidents in West Virginia’s American Federation of Teachers affiliate are women. Because there are 50 sovereigns in the federal system, teachers’ rights are privileges from the state. One consequence of the strike is that it may have made it easier for teachers in the state to gain bargaining rights down the road.