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A historic moment at last night’s Moral Monday protest – for the first time since the demonstrations began last summer, a protest ended with discussion, rather than arrests.

Fifteen teachers and parents staged a sit-in outside Senate leader Phil Berger’s office calling on Berger to meet with protesters to discuss recent cuts to education funding and a provision of the Senate budget plan that requires teachers to give up tenure in order to receive pay raises.

WUNC has more on what happened next:

The protesters began to get ready to get arrested. But here’s where script took an unexpected turn. Just a few seconds later, Senator Berger came around the corner, pulled some couches into a circle, and offered to have a discussion. And that’s exactly what they did. For more than an hour and a half, Berger and the protesters discussed education policy and the challenges facing teachers. There were some heated moments, and some passionate disagreements. For the most part, all parties were respectful. The protestors whittled their list to three items they wanted addressed: they wanted tenure back; they wanted teacher assistants restored; and they wanted Berger to hold a series of public meetings on education. At the end, Berger committed to nothing more than another conversation the next day to consider further meetings. And instead of being led out in handcuffs, the 15 protesters walked out the front of the building, nodding to Capitol Police officers, to meet their supporters.

WUNC – Moral Monday, Phil Berger, and the surprise ‘teacher couch summit’

Actual back and forth on education policy going on w/ #MoralMonday protesters and Sen. Berger. Getting wonky in here. pic.twitter.com/yxv7t07dUv — Kirk Ross (@ludkmr) June 10, 2014

“To my understanding, this is the first time this has happened in this kind of way in the last couple of years,” said Bryan Proffitt, a public school teacher who helped lead the discussion. “So, I think it represents a win for the movement, because I think we have put enough pressure on them that they realize they have to have a real conversation with us.”

During the meeting, Berger handed out a 24-page ‘amendment’ to the state budget he said illustrated the cost of implementing the 14 point policy agenda outlined by the NC NAACP. Berger said the changes would cost more than $7 billion and require raising the corporate income tax rate.

“We were unable to find a sponsor,” Berger said.

Here are some excerpts from the document:

Video of the sit-in via Fusion Films:



Roundup of news stories about the protest:

WRAL – Berger talks education with ‘Moral Monday’ protesters