Wave of Red State Protests Against Low Salaries and School Funding Comes to Kentucky

2018.3.31.Teachers.mainTeachers, school service workers and their supporters — including all the labor unions in West Virginia — rally at the capital on behalf of better wages for state workers, and demanding a fix for the states underfunded and broken PEIA health insurance programs. Teachers across Kentucky on March 30 became the latest educators to walk out of their classrooms, denouncing a bill that passed in the state Senate which proposes reduced pension benefits for state employees. (Photo: Rich McGervey / Flickr)

Teachers across Kentucky on Friday became the latest educators to walk out of their classrooms, denouncing a bill that passed in the state Senate on Thursday which proposes reduced pension benefits for state employees.

The strike, which closed schools in more than 20 counties, is the latest in a recent wave of impassioned protests that have been staged by teachers in red states, where lawmakers have placed little importance on funding schools and retaining qualified teachers in recent decades — instead wooing corporations with tax cuts. 

In Kentucky, educators and supporters have adopted the hashtag #120strong to encourage teachers in all 120 counties to join the fight to keep state workers’ pensions funded.

The bill that passed Thursday would limit the number of sick days teachers can put towards retirement; establish a plan in which new hires contribute a certain amount to their pensions, leading to fears of steep cuts to retirement plans; and would allow lawmakers to make other changes to…

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