Health coverage last straw for hard-strapped teachers News Shows

For seven straight school days, a teachers strike has gripped every county in West Virginia, with teachers setting up picket lines on public roads and thronging the state Capitol to holler at lawmakers.

And with the state Senate voting Saturday to reduce raises negotiated with Gov. Jim Justice, the strike is expected to extend into this week, raising the stakes on all sides to resolve an unpredictable work stoppage that leaves thousands of children at home each day.

“I call it the ‘West Virginia Spring.’ Spring is here in West Virginia,” said Democratic state Sen. John Unger, comparing the protests to the Arab Spring protests of 2011. “This is truly a citizens movement,” not led by lawmakers or labor leaders, he said. “We’re not leading it. What we’re doing is we’re going along with it.”

The teachers, as public employees, have no right to strike in West Virginia, according to state Supreme Court precedent. But the educators said they have been driven to the brink by low pay that has left many of them going to second jobs or other careers, or other states, entirely.

The militancy of the rank-and-file has surprised lawmakers and even the teachers’ union leaders, who went earlier this week tried to make a deal to raise pay by 5 percent — only to see teachers reject the deal and vote to continue their walkouts.

At the heart of the matter, Lineups and broadcast times may change.

“State of the Union”

7 a.m. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro; Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.VA.; Gov. John Kasich, R-ohio.

“This Week”

8 a.m. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; Sen. Chris Murphy, D-conn.; former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

“Fox News Sunday”

Navarro; Business Roundtable President Joshua Bolten.

“Meet the Press”

Ross; Sen. Angus King, I-maine.

“Face the Nation”

9:30 a.m. Navarro; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Manchin; Andrew Pollack, father of student killed in Florida school shooting. teachers say, isn’t their salaries. It’s their soaring health care costs.

“We’ve seen (people say), ‘Teachers are not happy with the 5 percent increase’ — that’s not it at all,” said Mary Clark, 49, a fifthgrade teacher in Monongalia County. “That’s not what kept us out. It’s the insurance. That’s the big deal.”

In West Virginia, teachers and other state employees receive health care coverage through the Public Employees Insurance Agency.

The state program is funded 80 percent by employers and 20 percent by employees. That means as health care costs continue to rise significantly, the program’s long-term solvency requires “significant revenue increases in employer and employee premiums” over the next five years, according to a 2017 financial report.

In other words, employees are going to need to pay up. “They are wanting to raise our rates,” Clark said.

But there’s a problem with that: After teaching for a little more than 10 years, “I’ve not seen (my takehome

pay) go up any at all,” not even counting inflation, Clark said. If her health care costs increase, “that’s not feasible.”

Daniel Summers, a 35year-old high school business and English teacher in Monongalia County, laid out the problem many teachers face: “We’re looking at some of our premiums potentially doubling next year.”

Summers, who has a master’s degree and other education credits, normally qualifies for raises of about $600 to $700 a year, he said. But he’s now looking at his insurance increasing by about $300 a month.

“While having a $700 increase sounds lovely, that would only cover about a month and a half of my PEIA insurance, and we’re still talking about wages that I’m bringing in, with student debt, and a master’s degree, below $45,000 year,” Summers said.

Summers has taken a second job as an education coordinator for the county.

Including his wife’s wages, the couple qualifies for government assistance programs.