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Summary.
Teachers have had enough. Since March, schools in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona Colorado and North Carolina have either been shut down or turned into sites of resistance. Poor pay, increased health care costs, and diminished pension plans are certainly core issues, but the tipping point may be that teachers are seeing their own experience be devalued by policymakers and other officials with little experience in the education field, and it’s not improving the education of their students. In other words, teachers are balking at the erosion of their status as professionals.Teachers have had enough. Since March, schools in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina have either been shut down or turned into sites of resistance. In Kansas, teachers are threatening to strike because their legislature continues to fund schools at a level the state Supreme Court has deemed unconstitutional. One Brookings Institute analysis projected that teacher actions could spread to another 11 states.