Republicans have been pulling their hair out this year because of those darn public school teachers. The GOP has been demonizing them for decades to further their goal of privatizing all schools in America, which went into overdrive with the rise of the Tea Party.

Starting with West Virginia, the teachers finally started fighting back.

In April, Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to put those public school teachers in their place.



Two GOP lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow public school districts in the state to seek a court injunction to block teacher strikes, according to the news outlet. Any teachers who refuse to comply with the injunction would be considered in contempt of court and could face up to six months in jail as well as fines.

A few weeks later, the bill was yanked without a vote ever being taken.

In June, Arizona considered legal action against it's own teachers.



The Arizona State Board of Education is exploring whether it has any legal authority to punish the tens of thousands of teachers who participated in late April's historic #RedForEd walkout, inciting tensions on social media ahead of Monday's meeting.

...The board can discipline teachers found guilty of misconduct by censuring them in minor cases and suspending or removing their teaching certificates in more severe cases.

Like Colorado, the Arizona Board of Education let it drop without punishing the teachers. Probably because there is a nationwide teacher shortage, due to teachers being paid too little, which is due to Republicans demonizing teachers for decades.

Of course, that didn't stop the Republican establishment to getting back to what it does best - demonizing public school teachers.



The teachers striking in Arizona have been called Democratic operatives. Masterminds of a national socialist revolution. Architects of a plot to legalize marijuana.

No really. This is no joke. The article has a few examples from people that aren't just random crazies on a blog.



“Cursory research (my public school teachers taught me well) reveals that #RedForEd’s music teacher leaders, 23-year-old Noah Karvelis and comrade Derek Harris, are political operatives who moved here within the last two years to use teachers and our children to carry out their socialist movement,” wrote Republican state Rep. Maria Syms in an op-ed published in the Arizona Republic

...

Among the theories: Fox10 host Kari Lake said the teachers strike is actually just a cover ploy to legalize recreational marijuana in Arizona...

“This is a big push to legalize pot and to make it more savory by tossing teachers a bone with a substantial raise,” she tweeted, according to the Phoenix New Times.

...

In its story, Breitbart suggested Karvelis is brainwashing Arizona students with Marxist propaganda, and highlighted a tweet in which he urges teachers to discuss feminism and race in the classroom

Today Pennsylvania, which hasn't seen a teachers strike that I am aware of, decided to muzzle the public school teachers preemptively.



A Pennsylvania state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would ban public school teachers from discussing politics or government in their classrooms.

Because a classroom is no place to learn about the government...?

My how times have changed since I was in school.

What's so amusing is that despite all this time and effort spent on making the public school teacher out to be Public Enemy #1, it just isn't working.



By close to 3-1, those surveyed by USA TODAY and Ipsos Public Affairs said public school teachers have the right to strike, a view held even by the parents whose lives are most disrupted when teachers walk off the job. Six in 10 said teachers aren’t paid fairly, even though higher salaries for them might well mean bigger bills for taxpayers.

...Just 34 percent said public school teachers were paid fairly; 59 percent said they weren’t. Nearly eight in 10 said teachers have to spend too much of their own money on school supplies.

And poll respondents saw education funding as money well spent. More than two-thirds said public schools were worth the tax money that goes into them.



That's gotta sting. And to make matters worse, in Oklahoma 15 of the 19 legislators that voted against giving the teachers the raises they deserved were chased from office IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES!

Even a majority of Republican voters aren't on-board with demonizing public school teachers. That is an extremely bad trend for the right-wing, public education haters.

Just wait until the general election.