Today, Explained - That'll Teach 'Em

Episode Date: March 7, 2018

An historic walkout in West Virginia ended yesterday. Teachers managed to shut down every single public school in the state for nine days to demand higher pay. Oklahoma, Arizona and Kentucky may be next. Sean Rameswaram speaks with West Virginia Public Broadcasting reporter Dave Mistich and Harrison County math teacher Cathy Drummond Pizzino to find out exactly how the state’s educators pulled off their big win. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And coming back on the bus, I called my son in college and I said, listen, I need to learn how to do this Twitter thing. That's Kathy Pizzino. Kathy is one of thousands of teachers who shut down every single public school in West Virginia for the past nine days. One of the first tweets that I ever did from that first weekend said, wow, we made them shut down the whole state. The teachers were upset about a whole host of issues, but the big one was pay. They were offered a 1% raise and weren't having it. The strike went all the way up to the state capitol in Charleston. It was huge, it was historic,

and ultimately, it was successful. Sign, sign, sign, sign, sign. They're gonna sign it. There's no question they're gonna sign it. I'm gonna sign it. Just yesterday, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice signed a bill that will give all state employees a 5% raise. But it's not over. Teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky are now considering walkouts too. So how exactly did all this happen? How did West Virginia's teachers get what they want? This is Dave Mistich. I'm sitting in the Senate reception room at the state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia.

Dave has been covering the strikes for West Virginia public broadcasting. Tell me just first how much teachers on average make in West Virginia. West Virginia ranks 48th across the country, including Washington, D.C., so 48 out of 51. Their average is about $45,000. How does that $45,000 compare to, say, cost of living in West Virginia? You know, with rising cost of that health care program, they said that with no raises and even with these small raises in the past, that these increases to their health care costs have chipped into their paycheck. The other part to West Virginia being, you know, a state that's sort of known for its ability to take care of its own and to the people in the communities.

Teachers have spent a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of effort providing for students that are in need in their communities and in their classrooms. So then this year, you hear of this 1% raise, but teachers start walking out. Why are they walking out? Well, again, they said that, you know, with increases to healthcare costs and no long-term solution to fix the healthcare program for state employees, that that 1% was not enough, that they would actually be losing money on their paychecks with that equation. And they felt like to retain and attract, you know, quality educators that they needed a raise and they needed to put these salaries at a place to where people would want to come here to teach. They also say that

there's a lot of vacancies. The Teachers union say there's about 700 teacher vacancies across the state. So that was another issue at play. There was also some issues with what they called a tax on seniority and other legislation that they felt hurt the respect that they felt they deserved as educators in the state. So tell me about the nine days where classes weren't in session all across the state, right? Right. Well, you know, I can tell you that, you know, literally thousands upon thousands of teachers headed to the state capitol.

There were picket lines at all sorts of schools in different places in communities around the state. So they came to the capitol. They did chants, they spoke to lawmakers and, you know, asked them questions about their health care, about their, you know, their potential pay raises. At one point, I believe it was on Monday of last week, the United Mine Workers of America and the AFL-CIO helped rally the teachers here at the Capitol. And that, I guess, sort of changed the, I don't know if it necessarily changed the dynamic at all,

but it certainly brought out people in droves to come see that big rally with some other, you know, well-known, well-established labor organizations here in the state. We're glad we got the 5%, but I think we all know the battle's not over. We're hoping they will fix our insurance later on and continue to treat us with respect. So Dave, obviously there was really big news yesterday. What happened? Sure. Well, you know, the teacher strike is now over. The House and Senate both cleared a bill that calls for a 5% pay raise for teachers, school service personnel, as well as state police.

Both passed it unanimously to a lot of cheers, a lot of celebration around here at the Capitol. So that's where we stand right now. Tell me something, Dave. How long have you been reporting in West Virginia? I've been reporting for West Virginia Public Broadcasting about five and a half years. And in those five and a half years, have you ever seen anything like this movement that's spreaded up in the past couple of weeks? I have not. Labor has a long history in West Virginia. There's been a narrative here in West

Virginia, at least over the past four or five years, especially with the Republicans in control of the legislature and some of the things that they've done. But also, you know, going back decades that the labor movement in West Virginia has sort of fallen off or been weakened. And one other thing that I really want to point out about all this is that, you know, the labor movement across this country, and particularly in West Virginia, has been at least characterized a lot of ways by men. You know, there's men predominantly working in coal mines. But here, this movement with teachers and school employees, you know, it's been mostly women. I mean, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of male teachers out there across the state and across the country. But in this particular case, women were leading the charge

as far as this movement for a fix on health care costs and as well as, you know, for for better pay. Coming up, we hear from one of those women, the one who learned how to use Twitter to fight for better pay. People don't often see my toothbrush, but when they do, I'm glad they see my Quip toothbrush, because a Quip toothbrush says, I care about my toothbrush. Quip makes these electric toothbrushes that look like they were designed by the future. They work like they're from the future, too. They gently let you know when it's time to move on to a different part of your mouth when you're brushing.

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toothbrush from the future for $25 plus free stuff. Go to getquip.com slash explained and introduce your mouth to its new best friend. Again, that's G-E-T-Q-U-I-P.com slash explain. Also, have you checked out Crooked Conversations? It's a newish podcast that features a rotating crew of all your favorite Crooked Media hosts, contributors, and special guests. It's got that Pod Save America feel, but on this show, they'll sometimes talk about sports or drugs or meditation. A new episode dropped just today that

features a conversation between Jon Favreau, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and legal scholar Cass Sunstein. They talk about whether authoritarianism could take hold in the United States. Check out Crooked Conversations wherever you check out your podcasts. My name is Kathy Pizzino, and I'm a high school math teacher in Clarksburg, West Virginia. I spoke to Kathy late yesterday afternoon. It was just after the teacher strike in West Virginia ended, and I started by asking her a pretty impolite question. Can I ask, as a teacher in West Virginia, how much you make a year? Roughly, I mean, it's around $50,000. And that's

29 years teaching and a master's. So is $50,000 enough for you? Do you have a family? It's tight for me. I mean, I've got two kids. My oldest is in college, and I have a younger one that's a junior in high school. Sounds like a lot of money. Until you start looking at what you're spending on your house, you have to spend on your homeowner's insurance, your car insurance, and your car payments. And, you know, every little bit just starts to chip away. And you're like a single income family? Yes, I'm a single mom. How did it feel, I guess, when you found out that because of these changes, you were essentially getting a pay cut when you'd been teaching for 29 years and making about 50K with a master's degree. Walking out was not stressful. That was easy.

The stressful time was just hearing the discussion every time you would go in at lunch and somebody was talking about how dire this situation was, where it was like, we have got to get organized and do something. That was the boiling point. So it was like watching, as I told my students at school, it was like watching a pot of water boil. And Kathy, you've been teaching for 29 years. That means you just started teaching the last time teachers walked out in West Virginia in 1990, right? That was just the teachers. This strike was teachers, service personnel, including aides, secretaries, cooks, bus drivers, custodians, teachers. It was everybody. In fact, this was really different because the superintendents were calling school off

and the kids were right on the line with us during the day. Tell me a bit more about that. What were these actual protests like? What were people saying? Were there counter protests like we sometimes see? We were out on the main road and had signs and signs out. And it's a very busy street that people drive on through Harrison County. and horns were being honked constantly in support of us. Again, you have to remember, we were educators out there fighting for all public employees. So when you have the policeman gone by and, you know, he lets his sirens off, we were fighting for his insurance and everybody else's insurance as well.

So with everyone out there, with like the whole school staff and students and people in the community honking along. And principals feeding us at lunchtime and community bringing food and feeding us breakfast and feeding us lunch. And not just from here, but from other states. I mean, I don't know if you heard about the pizzas to Charleston. The fund from the United Teachers of San Francisco started a GoFundMe account that this morning, it was up to $16,000 or $17,000. They delivered hundreds of pizzas at the state capitol yesterday. The outreach from other states has just been, it's just heartwarming. I'm amazed at how giving our world is. There really is good in our world still. Yeah. I know a good march, a good protest has some chants and some signs. Can you tell me what kinds of things you guys were saying and seeing? Oh, my gosh.

55 Strong was absolutely the biggest one. And what does 55 Strong mean? 55 Strong are the 55 counties in West Virginia. Remember November? Make them pay in May. Enough is enough. Fed up, fired up. Did you make a sign?

I absolutely did make a sign. My sign, the one in the very beginning when we had a rally, the rally in before the strike even started, and it's actually on February 17th is when they announced that we would walk out for two days. It was going to be pouring the rain and I decided I wasn't going to make a sign. And I got a red hat and I painted 55 strong across the top and put Harrison County on the bill and painted it. And I bought a red umbrella and I painted it and it was my sign. And it said 1% does not equal 5%. So I wore red and I was my own sign down at the rally. I know West Virginia is a red state. Does red have any other connotations there?

Anything else that it means? I don't know how red we are now. So. Yeah, you said one of the chants that you guys were using was remember November. Yes. What does that mean to you? Was this sort of like a political awakening beyond just sort of representing? Oh, we're going to remember what you didn't remember.

We know your names. We know who you are that did this. You know, we know who did not, who's talking out of one side of their mouth for education, and then your actions don't show it. We'll remember where you got your money from. It's not just, we weren't just watching what was going on in education while we were down there. And so with all of that outpouring of support, how did it feel to not quite be as supported by the governor and the legislature in West Virginia?

We are in a political chess match, and we are not competent to play in this arena. This is our first match because we are not politicians. So you're playing a politician's game. You can even see when they came to the deal today, one of the first things that started coming out was that they were going to take away from Medicaid to do it. Wow. The governor has squashed that rumor and said that that's not true. But the political arena is a whole lot different than the educational arena. And do you think your work is done then on this issue?

Oh, no. We have become really well educated again in how our government works and have been like, you've got to watch what's going on. So I isn't an issue teacher pay, teacher benefits, just limited to West Virginia. I'm wondering if you've heard from teachers in other states or talked to teachers in other states and what message you're hoping what happened in West Virginia sends to teachers in other states. I actually did. You know, when we started hearing that there were some other states kind of, kind of watching and, and we're thinking and we're hearing about Kentucky, we're hearing about Oklahoma. And I did reach out to them. And, and if they had any questions that I'd be happy to share some of the strategies that, you know, I saw work.

You have to have a real defined goal of what you want and you have to have everybody working towards that goal and staying together. The other thing that you need to do is already is, it's okay to be on your Facebook page, but you guys need to get off Facebook and get on Twitter at some point because that's where you're going to really get most of your information because that's what worked for this girl right here. Okay, so there's one takeaway here.

It's get off Facebook, get on Twitter. Get on Facebook, get on Twitter. Yes, but I'm so ready to turn my notifications off. I did my first tweet, and my first tweet was February 17th of my life and I'm so ready to just shut it down for a while and go back to teaching. Kathy Pizzino is a high school math teacher in Clarksburg, West Virginia. You can find her on Twitter at Mama Pizzino. I'm Sean Ramos for him. This is Today Explained. You can find our show on Twitter at Today underscore Explained. And while you're at it, tell your friends,

show them how to subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Before we go, one more shout out to Quip and their electric toothbrushes. Your teeth deserve a really good brush. And Quip has put in the work. They've combined dentistry and design to make a totally new electric toothbrush. Quip starts at just $25. And if you go to getquip.com slash explained right now, you'll get your first refill pack free with a Quip electric toothbrush.