Virginia teachers turn out in droves to protest for more funding and higher pay

An estimated 10,000 teachers and their supporters packed the streets of Richmond, Virginia, on Monday to protest for higher pay and more funding.

The teachers were demanding that the legislature increase the education fund to pre-recession levels and to raise teacher pay, which lags $9,400 behind the national average despite Virginia being the 12 wealthiest state per-capita in the United States.

Activists with Virginia Educators United had expected only 2,000 people to turn out for the event and said they were delighted by the scale of the event, the latest in a series of actions by teachers across the US.

“I am ecstatic about today’s turnout especially because sometimes, we as teachers don’t always come out, we don’t always speak out, we don’t always let our voices be heard, so I am excited that we are out here today doing just that,” said Milondra Coleman, who teaches at John Marshall High in Richmond.

Although the walkout lasted for only one day and many school districts in Virginia did not participate, Coleman said that the action gave teachers a new sense of confidence and power.

“I think this will definitely take us to a different level,” said Coleman. “I think one of the things that teachers often fear is that there will be some type of repercussions for speaking out. So I think today shows that, you know what, we can do it and there aren’t going to be any repercussions, and instead there can be positive things that can happen

for taking the time to speak out.”

For the majority of the teachers in the streets of Richmond, the action was their first.

“This is my first time coming out to be involved and it’s just wonderful,” said Caitlin Dunn, a 26-year-old English teacher from Newport News as she struggled to carry a giant 10-ft-tall puppet clad in the #RedforEd motto that has been used by striking teachers at other events.

“Teachers my age are walking out because when it comes to making a choice for themselves between supporting themselves or continuing in education, they are quitting because they are to able to make a living wage,” said Dunn.

Monday’s action is the latest in a series of strikes and actions by teachers, who have been mobilized following successful teachers’ strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona and Los Angeles that have inspired a new movement nationwide.

The strike fever has won not just the support of teachers, but also politicians such as Richmond’s school superintendent, Jason Kamras, who closed schools on Monday in solidarity; releasing more than 3,000 of the city’s teachers into the streets.

“You are either with public schools or you’re not and we need to make sure the assembly remembers that when everybody votes in November,” Kamras told the rally.

Previously, Kamras had helped lead anti-teacher union initiatives in Washington DC but in a sign of how much things have changed Karmas stood today on the side of teachers’ union leaders he had previously fought.

“It is no secret that we have had issues with [Jason Kamras] over the years,” said Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers president. “I applaud him being out there with teachers today.”

Currently, the Virginia state legislature is narrowly controlled by Republicans who hold a one-seat majority in the state house and a two-seat majority in the state senate while Democrat Ralph Northam controls the governor’s mansion.

Northam has proposed $750m in tax breaks for Amazon to relocate to northern Virginia, and he has proposed to increase education funding by $269m – a figure that is only a quarter of what educators are demanding to bring Virginia’s education budget up to prerecession levels.

With elections for the state legislature set for this November in Virginia, teachers’ unions intend to invest big in electing teachers’ union advocates.

Judging by the thousands in the streets of Richmond on Monday, the National Education Association president, Lily Eskelsen García, said she was optimistic.

“There is a judgment day that will come and this is what democracy looks like, ” says García.