Oklahoma Teacher Walkout Matches Length of West Virginia

Oklahoma’s two largest school districts were closed Thursday for the ninth consecutive day because of a teacher strike.  Oklahoma’s strike now matches the length of a walkout in West Virginia earlier this year. The strike in West Virginia started a rebellion of teachers in some Republican-led states.

Oklahoma City Public Schools, the state’s largest district, and Tulsa Public Schools, made the announcement yesterday Wednesday that they will remain closed today Thursday.  Smaller schools districts were expected to resume classes Thursday.

Many Oklahoma school districts have canceled classes since April 2 when thousands of teachers traveled to the state Capitol demanding that lawmakers provide more tax dollars for classroom needs.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed legislation last month granting teacher pay hikes of about 6-thousand 1-hundred-dollars and providing tens of millions of new dollars for public schools. But teachers demand more.

Teachers’ union leaders have not indicated when they expect demonstrations to end, but the number of protesters has dwindled, and Republican legislative leaders say they don’t plan to consider more bills to raise more revenue.