Teacher strikes shut down schools across Oklahoma, Kentucky

OKLAHOMA CITY – Classes were canceled Monday for hundreds of thousands of students across two states as striking teachers rallied at capitols in Oklahoma and Kentucky to demand improved funding for education.

The walkouts come less than a month after teachers in West Virginia ended a nine-day strike that shuttered schools there.

Larry Cagle, an English teacher at Thomas Edison Preparatory High School in Tulsa, was one of thousands of teachers gathered at the Capitol in Oklahoma City.

“We’ve gotten tired of begging for everything,” said Cagle, a co-founder of Oklahoma Teachers United. “Teachers, students and the community have decided enough is enough.”

Oklahoma ranks near the bottom among states in average pay for its teachers.

The teachers are striking despite a $6,100 pay raise signed into law last week by Gov. Mary Fallin. Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest called the legislation a “down payment.”

The association, the state’s largest teacher union, is calling for $10,000 raises over three years, $5,000 raises for bus drivers, custodians and other staff, and restoration of tens of millions of dollars in education funding trimmed in recent years.

Despite the frustration and even anger, the mood inside Oklahoma’s Capitol was upbeat and something of an expo, with legislators offering hot coffee and bagels to protesting teachers and their supporters.

In Kentucky, teachers met at the union’s headquarters in Frankfort before marching to the Statehouse.