Public Education Walkout Analysis

Due to an ongoing conflict between teachers at the Reynoldsburg City school and the school board, many teachers have decided to strike. When the strikers experienced a lack of support from the board, and even from the community, Emily Dillon, one of the strikers, decided to write an explanation. The primary source that she created was published on educationvotes.nea.org. Her piece is titled ‘“WHY I CHOSE TO STRIKE”: Reynoldsburg, OH, teacher shares her story.’ Throughout this primary source, Emily Dillon, an elementary school teacher and employee of the Reynoldsburg City Schools, goes into a considerable amount of detail about a day in the life of being on strike. In doing so, she explains to readers the main reasons they are striking and expresses her frustrations towards these issues. Dillon makes it very obvious that she does not enjoy striking and in fact misses her job very much, even if some of her arguments about class sizes, are flawed and or poorly written.

The NEA and the AFT represent millions of teachers throughout the country. Moe indicates that teachers unions are known has political powerhouses which contribute millions of dollars to campaign contributions and lobbying. Fortune Magazine has consistently ranked National Education Association in the top 15 of its Washington Power 25 list for influence in the nation’s capital. The American Federation of Teachers along with the National Education Association has given more than $60 million combined in campaign contributions over the last 20 years (Moe 267). Ballot initiatives that are created in to order to begin school reform usually are defeated because their huge sums of moneys that come from these unions in order to defeat a ballot that can jeopardize a teacher’s job. Let’s keep in mind that unions are designed to protect the interest of the teachers, unions are not designed to help the interest of children. The unions use this money mostly to demand special interest for the teachers, such as imposing a structure at the workplace giving teacher’s rights and restricting managerial control. Teacher unions are by far the most powerful forces in American education and use their power to promote their own special interests at any expense.

April 1st 2016, more than 340 thousand students had to spend the school time in churches, libraries, parks, or other places without teacher. It was an April Fools' Day but the Chicago Teachers' Strike was not a joke. Not long after the first strike in 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union walked out again. Thousands of teachers and their supporters gathered at schools and City Hall, shouting that they protest for low wages and unfair labor practices. Karen Lewis, the CTU President, says that they hope this "act of war" can bring pressure to the governor Bruce Rauner, so that they can have changes like better pensions, fairer raises and more autonomy on school work. Obviously they did not get what they want from the first

According to the Chicago Suntimes, the article “Illinois Public-Employee Union Members Vote To Authorize Strike”, the author John O’Connor reports tens of thousands of government workers starts a strike against governor Bruce Rauner. The main reason for the strike was caused by two-year budget cut. There is a big difference between first term governor’s budget and current governor’s current budget. Since the last year’s contract expired in June 2015, “ Rauner wants a four-year wage freeze, increased employee contributions to maintain current health coverage, and a 40-hour workweek instead of a 37 ½-hour one”(Connor). Therefore, the Illinois Public-Employee Union wants to protects employees’ right.

In my opinion, the walkout that occurred all over the nation is a strong message however it accomplished nothing. I participated in the walk-out and nobody took it seriously. I saw several people in fact, making jokes about the events that happened at Douglas high school. The entire event is also supposed to be a protest however, nobody stopped us and instead encouraged us to participate. Personally, I think this weakens the message that is trying to be portrayed because there was no risk in protesting against gun laws. In order for a protest to have a powerful message, it must have rules that are broken. No rules were broken during the walk-out which felt like a waste of time because in the back of my mind I knew nothing was getting accomplished.

Edwin Louis Cole once said, “The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration.” We often say that people should fight in order to win what they want. Teachers strike has been instigating arguments, however, it caused vicious circle that deepened conflicts and separations within society, rather than resolving problems. Teacher’s strike hurt not only students and civilians, but teachers themselves.

Our student council brought it to the principal, and the superintendent showed her support. The principal allowed the walkout, but we were still going to be marked tardy if our parents did not excuse us. The student council then found a teachers room where we could invite walkout participants to make protest signs during lunch, we had over 20 people show up to to make signs each

In the United States approximately 60% of teacher have join the union. The unions continually have issues with negotiating proper wages for their members. When most employees file a grievance against their employer it end up being about some form of wages issues. The teachers union has increase dramatically over the past decade, since state official has pass the new law that encourage school regions to bargain with teachers union in the way of duty to bargain. Duty to bargain law was created for unions that are seeking power during collective trading process; however the union made it unlawful for school districts to reject any bargaining with them due to arbitration would be needed if both parties were deadlock. A significant number of teachers join the union due to the new law of duty to bargain which result in a number of bargaining contracts (Lovenheim, & Willen, 2016).

Teachers with a low salary and frozen teacher compensation, have less motivation and time to dedicate to school. Some examples that prove it, is that most of the teachers of public schools in Arizona don’t make corrections of any homework due to the lack of time. Kids also have extra recesses at school hours to allow the teachers to grade school assignments. Some schools in Arizona are

Searching up local issues was not the first time I came across of this issue. As a student I am always are about education news locally. When I heard the work strike I thought it was going to be affecting me directly. Talks about this issue is everywhere on the local new and in school, so I knew that the teachers were going on strike. The only thing that affected me is that I am worried that the strike issue will affect the school board I’m in, Toronto District Catholic School Board. This strike/ issue is a big problem and I did not understand why I couldn’t be resolved until I did my research. For those who don’t know, changing rules in a big school board cannot happen overnight therefore that is why this strike is still going on. The issue seems like a big issue because

The strike is caused by the demands of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). They demand job security, academic freedom, and more full-time jobs at the 24 public colleges (Ghebreslassie). It hit five weeks from October 16 to November 21. The strike has a huge negative and positive impacts on student’s happiness.

In this time of increased expectations and decreased funding, schools are under fire more than ever to produce results. In an effort to produce these results, schools are being asked to examine all of their practices and to revamp the system. Certainly, as part of this exploration process, teachers’ unions and the system for collective bargaining has undergone intense scrutiny. What use to be considered the standard for teachers, joining the union, has now become more of a choice and in some districts an unavailable option. In contradiction, some other districts have move to a non-right-to-work policy where teachers are required to join the union, although most allow for teachers to opt out of the union’s political agenda.

Public school districts are known to imply that “No child will be left behind”, after President Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001” in 2002 (No Child Left Behind, 2003). However, many children are and teachers are beginning to be left behind as well. The U.S government is warning educators across the nation of massive terminations, school closures, and shorter school years, claiming the need to budget. Dallas Independent School District plans to eliminate 4,000 positions, 3,100 of them teachers (Murray). The problem is the U.S government wants to take money away from the educational systems, and this needs to change. If the Government continues to take money away from our educational

In the article, “Poor Conditions Lead to Teacher Strike Sickout Closure of Most to Trade Schools,” and Emma Brown investigates the details behind the teacher sickout in Detroit, Michigan schools which was brought on because inadequate school facilities, supplies and health standards. First, Brown describes the conditions of the schools saying that there are rats, roaches, molds, ceilings full of holes and unreliable heat. Next, the author stresses the frustration of the teachers, faculty and most students. When Emma Brown shares the opinion of Vanessa Dawson (a sixth-grade english teacher) “This was drastic, but what we did, the terms of taking off, but erratic times call for drastic measures and at this point someone had to hear what we were

Since only 13 states are still allowed to strike and 60 percent of the strikes in the last ten years have been in Pennsylvania, the best solution to school striking is to make it illegal (Lange). In order for this to be possible, changes would need to occur in the way schools are run now in Pennsylvania. When teachers feel that they deserve a pay raise, they need to talk to their boss, who is unreachable. This person also does not understand what the teachers do. Their head boss often do not go to college for education. Instead, they major in business. This person does not make for a good person for the teachers to talk to. They do not realize what these teachers do for their students and often never even see the teachers teach. They look at