Could a walkout occur again in ’19?

WHAT will happen if, as the 2019 legislative session gets rolling, it appears common education isn’t in line for another big boost in funding? Will teachers strike again, as they did this year?

It wouldn’t be surprising if the answer is yes. And why not? The threat of a walkout paid off handsomely in 2018, with the Legislature approving large tax increases for pay raises that were even larger than the teachers’ union had demanded. The new revenue also went to boost pay for support staff and for additional school funding.

All this was approved before the strike, which lasted two weeks and was used to demand more money, including some that wouldn’t have necessarily ended up going to education. The end of the strike left many walkout attendees frustrated that the Legislature didn’t do more.

Lawmakers this year approved a record $2.9 billion appropriation for common education, but got little to no thanks. The walkout spurred dozens of teachers to file for legislative seats, and more than four dozen made it through to November’s ballot. Meanwhile, members of the Legislature who voted against the tax increase were labeled “anti-education” and, in some cases, lost their primaries or runoffs.

That sentiment — if you don’t see things as we do, you’re the enemy — is sure carry over to next year, fueled by the Oklahoma Education Association with the guidance and support of its parent group, the National Education Association, which directed the Oklahoma walkout and others around the country this spring, and the American Federation of Teachers union.

The AFT sponsored an event Saturday at Northwest Classen High School called “Stand Up for Public Schools,” which appeared to be more or less a political rally urging attendees to vote progressives into office in November. A featured speaker was U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who gives socialist Bernie Sanders a run for his money as the most liberal member of that chamber.

“This government fails our children, fails our teachers and fails our futures,” Warren declared.

Also on hand was AFT President Randi Weingarten, who had been in Oklahoma City during the strike. Weingarten told the throng that protest is important but it’s only “step one.”

“What we want, what our kids deserve, is a revolution,” she said. A revolution.

What the unions don’t want, of course, is any change to the status quo. In Oklahoma, that means keeping a highly paid superintendent in every one of the state’s 500-plus school districts, instead of looking for ways to trim that number and produce some cost savings (the savings would be minimal, don’t you know, so why bother?).

It means fighting a proposal, on the ballot in November, that would give school districts more leeway on how they use their property tax revenue, which is earmarked primarily for buildings.

It means keeping the number of charter schools to a minimum, and making no changes to a funding formula that ensures charters make do with considerably less than traditional schools. The list goes on.

The unions’ chief aim is procuring more money. If getting that requires walking out again, they will almost certainly be willing to do so. These are revolutionary times, after all.