All across the country, public school teachers are performing walkouts in demand for higher pay.
Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist announced Sunday morning that the school district will join other districts across Oklahoma in a possible teacher walkout.
“If our state legislature does not pass a plan to increase teacher pay and funding to public education by April 1, we will support our educators in their walk-out by shutting down the district,” Gist said in a Facebook post. “This means that effective Monday, April 2, every school in our district would be closed indefinitely until Oklahoma state leaders create a permanent sustainable plan to pay educators the professional salaries they deserve.”
Gist wrote that the TPS will work with community advocates and partner agencies to support families by providing child care, meals and other services while the district shuts down.
Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, announced Thursday at the state Capitol that teachers will walk out of their classrooms if lawmakers don’t approve a $6,000 raise by April 1. If the organization’s demands are not met, educators are planning on a statewide work stoppage on April 2.
“After years of doing more with less … Oklahoma educators have reached a breaking point,” Priest said Thursday to The Associated Press. “We will not allow our students to go without any longer.”
