The Tulsa World reports:
Thousands of Oklahoma teachers are descending on the Oklahoma Capitol on Monday in the first day of what could be an extended teacher walkout. Early Monday afternoon, Tulsa Public Schools and Broken Arrow Public Schools were among those announcing they would shut down again Tuesday in support of the teacher walkout.
By 9:15 a.m., a continuous line of teachers, three to four people wide, was circumnavigating the Oklahoma state Capitol protesting the state’s funding level for public schools. After weeks of buildup, more than a hundred of school districts across the state were shut down as educators followed through on their promise to walkout of the classroom if their demands for higher pay for teachers and support personnel and increased common education funding weren’t met.
The thousands of teachers protesting Monday came despite the Oklahoma Legislature passing a pay raise last week, which the Oklahoma Education Association called “a down payment.” Lyndsey Slaughter, a Bixby Public Schools teacher, said she’s thankful for the pay raise, but “when you spend your own money on supplies, you don’t have much left at the end of the month.”
Teachers marching to the State Capitol for #okteacherwalkout pic.twitter.com/vlflM3nbmo
— Russell Jones (@KOCORussell) April 2, 2018
Sky 5: Tens of thousands of people rally in support of teacher walkout at Capitol https://t.co/NOaDuBMr4o pic.twitter.com/m9PM7LOfUc
— KOCO-5 Oklahoma City (@koconews) April 2, 2018
WATCH: Oklahoma teachers gather outside the State Capitol to protest for better wages and more education funding. https://t.co/dmcPUgAygC pic.twitter.com/a5CC0vyMPb
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 2, 2018
This is less than a fourth of the picket line surrounding the Oklahoma state capitol right now. #oklahomateachers #oklahomateacherwalkout pic.twitter.com/r37zfrP3SI
— Kate Grumke (@KGrumke) April 2, 2018