{"id":353322,"date":"2018-03-22T09:29:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T08:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/kentucky-and-arizona-teachers-rally-to-defend-public-education\/"},"modified":"2018-03-22T09:29:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T08:29:53","slug":"kentucky-and-arizona-teachers-rally-to-defend-public-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/kentucky-and-arizona-teachers-rally-to-defend-public-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky and Arizona teachers rally to defend public education"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Kentucky and Arizona teachers rally to defend public education<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    J. Cooper<br \/>\n    <br \/>22 March 2018<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>Thousands of teachers marched at their state capitols on Wednesday in Kentucky and Arizona, demanding funding for public education, teacher pensions, health care, and in opposition to the privatization of education.<\/p>\n<p>In Kentucky, despite the cold and snow, around a thousand educators rallied, as at least a dozen school superintendents shut schools for the day, allowing teachers to participate in the demonstration without penalty.<\/p>\n<p>In Arizona, a single teacher in the Pendergast elementary school district triggered a shutdown of nine schools by organizing a \u201csickout\u201d so the teachers could head for a demonstration in Phoenix, which drew a crowd of hundreds. Kayla Wilson, a 5th grade teacher at Pendergast Elementary with three years on the job, told the <em>Arizona Capitol Times<\/em> that she makes about $35,000 a year and owes more than $40,000 in student loans.<\/p>\n<p>At the rally in Frankfort, Kentucky, teachers carried handmade placards reading, \u201cFighting for the future of our kids,\u201d \u201cOur money, our pension, just Vote No,\u201d \u201cKentucky Fried Us,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ve stirred up a hornet\u2019s nest,\u201d \u201cWe can\u2019t put students first if they put teachers last,\u201d and \u201cI don\u2019t have Social Security or a hedge fund,\u201d among others.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageFull\" style=\"width:480px; oveflow:hidden;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/asset\/a38190d9-aa69-40d5-a4e9-b31b8db288aO\/image.png?rendition=image480\"  width=\"480\" style=\"width:480px;\" \/><span>Kentucky teachers demonstrate in Frankfort<\/span><\/div>\n<p>Rally participants were well aware that behind the attack on teacher pensions is an attack on public education as a whole, and that the state government is moving rapidly to privatize education by defunding public education and discouraging teacher recruitment.<\/p>\n<p>Republican Governor Matt Bevin, a former hedge fund manager, is pressing for the passage of Senate Bill 1, which slashes retired teachers\u2019 cost-of-living allowance&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/03\/22\/ariz-m22.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Kentucky and Arizona teachers rally to defend public education By J. Cooper 22 March 2018 Thousands of teachers marched at their state capitols on Wednesday in Kentucky and Arizona, demanding funding for public education, teacher pensions, health care, and in opposition to the privatization of education. In Kentucky, despite the cold and snow, around [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-353322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}