Last week the teachers of West Virginia went out on strike due to low pay and weak health benefits. On Thursday things got interesting.



Tuesday night, state union leaders and the Governor Jim Justice reached a deal, and the teachers were expected to be back at work on Thursday. They didn’t go. Unsatisfied with the resolution, they stayed on the picket line, mounting one of the country’s biggest unauthorized “wildcat” strikes in decades. “I think that teachers had just finally had enough,” said striking English teacher Erica Rodeheaver.

Wildcat strikes have become extremely rare in the United States, as labor unions have largely ceased to exist in many areas. What is interesting here are the reasons why the teachers are defying both the Republican state government and their own union.



West Virginia teachers say several factors convinced them to take the risk of striking. In addition to rising health-care costs and unusually low pay -- the state’s average teacher salary was $45,622 in 2016, about 22 percent below the national average -- they found safety in numbers. The state already has hundreds of teacher vacancies, made existing employees that much more valuable. And the lack of formal collective bargaining rights, along with the state legislature’s years-long refusal to address their grievances, left them without much recourse. “What’s the worst thing that could happen – they fire me and I have to go get a job that pays more money than this?” said Catherine Pizzino, who’s in her 29th year teaching math. The attitude of many teachers, she said, was “you’re losing right now – you have nothing to lose.”

It's that attitude that can cause a rebirth in labor union activity.

Traditionally the big concern is backlash from public opinion. That doesn't appear to be happening this time. Instead, other public unions are taking the opportunity to act up.



The West Virginia School Service Personnel Association — an independent union that represents bus drivers, clerical workers, and janitors — has played a key role in mobilizing support for the wildcat strike. Under Carmichael’s plan, service personnel plan would receive only 2% raises in the first year and 1% in the second year.

Bus drivers in many counties refused to go to work, leading schools in those counties to cancel classes.

Why did we have 12 million stories about Trump voters farting around in diners and like, 3, about underpaid largely female WV teachers leading one of the largest strikes in recent memory? Because it involves three core groups people don’t like: Unions. Poor people. Women. https://t.co/wtroHLA3oe — Heather Dockray (@Wear_a_helmet) March 2, 2018

We are twelve years into the War on Teachers, a war that began in New Orleans. After Katrina, all 5,000 public school teachers were fired and the city went to a privatized charter school system. What were the results?



The Orleans Parish School Board on Thursday (Feb. 22) threw its support behind calls for Gov. John Bel Edwards or the Louisiana Legislature to create a task force to address the state's shortage of certified teachers.

You can see the same results over and over and over again all across the country.

Nine years ago the War on Teachers came to Wisconsin. What were the results?



That shortage is only starting. As time goes on and fewer people enter the field, the state’s school districts will struggle to find teachers to fill open slots. Already for the 2016-2017 school year, the state’s Department of Public Instruction had to relax the rules for teacher licenses so that more people could get one-year emergency approval to fill shortages.



The War on Teachers came to Oklahoma and Kansas years ago forcing some teachers to get second jobs just to make ends meet, and causing thousands more to flee the states.

The right-wing's demonization of the profession of teaching is having the intended impact - fewer young people want to be teachers.



Back in 1975, more than one-fifth (22%) of college students majored in education — a higher share than any other major. By 2015 though, fewer than one in 10 Americans pursuing higher education devoted their studies to education, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau compiled by career website Zippia.

..Looking ahead, even fewer college students may pursue education majors. Only 4.6% of college freshmen planned to major in education, down from 10% in the 1970s, according to a May 2017 study from researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles.

You can hardly blame young people for avoiding a profession that lacks decent pay or respect from your employers and the community.

Nor should we overlook the current teachers.



Over the past decade, roughly 8% of American teachers left the profession. That’s nearly double the rates seen in countries like Finland and Singapore, where teacher shortages are less acute and students are higher achieving.

“This is pre-retirement turnover, mostly driven by dissatisfaction,” Richard Ingersoll, professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, told education publication NEA Today.

Republicans don't appear to appreciate the problem they are causing by destroying public education.

This is a long-term trend that you can't turn around with any fix. Privatizing the schools won't fix it, otherwise New Orleans would be a success story. Even if you suddenly recognized your mistakes and fully-funded public schools, it would take years just to get back to where we were a decade ago. And that's not going to happen anytime soon.

This is happening at the same time that the student population is increasing.

More student + fewer teachers = nationwide teacher shortage.



The 2017-18 school year has started in many places across the country, and federal data shows that every state is dealing with shortages of teachers in key subject areas. Some are having trouble finding substitute teachers, too.

The annual nationwide listing of areas with teacher shortages, compiled by the U.S. Education Department, shows many districts struggling to fill positions in subjects such as math, the traditional sciences, foreign language and special education, but also in reading and English language arts, history, art, music, elementary education, middle school education, career and technical education, health, and computer science. That is not an exhaustive list.

Republican states have responded in the way that you might expect - hire unqualified scabs.



In Oklahoma, Utah and Arizona, teachers can be hired without formal training. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a new law a few months ago allowing people who have never been trained as teachers to go into schools and teach, as long as they have a bachelor’s degree or five years of experience in fields “relevant” to the subject.

In Arizona’s Vail Unified School District near Tucson, Education Week reported, parents are being hired as teachers to help stem a years-long shortage. It said 17 of 24 noncertified new teachers in grades K-8 are parents, and more than a dozen parents teach in high schools, too.

Republicans won't believe it until they do it themselves, but teaching is a) hard work, and b) a skill.

Public education has been part of American life since the mid-19th Century.

It's built upon the ideas that a) an educated public is essential for democracy, and b) an educated public is essential to compete in a global economy.

Both of those ideas are being tossed aside and replaced with short-term predatory capitalism.



Three days ago, Diane Ravitch wrote this: Public education today faces an existential crisis. Over the past two decades, the movement to transfer public money to private organizations has expanded rapidly. She's right. The end of public education as we know it is in sight. And there's a war on public school teaching toward that end, with Betsy DeVos as Field General. It really couldn't be more obvious.

The outcome couldn't be more obvious too, and that's not good.