Today, Explained - They're not gonna take it

Episode Date: April 5, 2018

The West Virginia teacher strike has ended, but walkouts are just getting started in Kentucky and Oklahoma, where lawmakers are scrambling to pass bills that would supplement school funding. Vox’s Alexia Fernández Campbell explains why public school teachers are mad as hell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Luke Vanderplug, Today Explained producer. That's me. I have to do some toothbrush ads. Well, those ads, they're tough to do sometimes. How do you do them day after day? Oh, that is a great question. What's the most creative way I can tell people to go to getquip.com slash explained today? You know, fun fact, my mom actually bought a Quip toothbrush because of

our ads. Luke's mom? Yeah, Luke's mom. Luke's mom, Vanderplug? Luke's real Vanderplug mom. Let's call her. Okay. Okay. A couple of weeks ago, we told you about a teacher's strike in West Virginia. We are united! We are united! It worked. Teachers there ended up with a 5% pay raise. But West Virginia was only the beginning. We're not gonna take it.

No, we're not gonna take it. We're not gonna to take it. We're not going to take it anymore. Teachers are talking about walking out in Arizona. They've already taken it to the streets in Kentucky, and there are walkouts all over Oklahoma. They even got a theme song. We're not going to take it anymore. Right now, it's pretty intense in Oklahoma. Schools across the state are shut down again today.

The teachers say they are not backing down. For one, teachers there are asking, they're more ambitious than what West Virginia teachers asked for. They want not only a pay raise for themselves and other state employees, but they actually want the state to restore funding to public education that has been cut and cut and cut in the past 10 years. Alexia Fernandez-Campbell writes about economic policy at Vox. Teachers there have not gotten a raise from the state in 10 years. And adjusted for inflation, that means they're actually getting paid less than they were. So more of them are working

extra jobs. They're driving Uber. They're working at the clothing store at Walmart. And above that, their class sizes have been growing as the state has been cutting the budget for education. And the turning point was not only were West Virginia teachers striking around the same time, the state said, not only are you not going to get a raise next year, but we're actually going to cut education again. And that was what kind of triggered everyone, all the teachers there. Do you know how much these teachers are getting paid? You said they haven't gotten a raise in 10 years, but do we have any idea what the median salary is? Yeah, so the median salary in 2016 was about $45,000. And that's actually the ranks Oklahoma at the way bottom at 49. Out of all the states, pay has been going down.

When you adjust it for inflation, there's just no way around it. They're being docked pay every year. Yeah, because it doesn't keep up with the cost of living. And beyond having to work a second job at Walmart when you're a teacher, how do things look for teachers in Oklahoma in the classroom? I mean, are the schools well-funded and the teachers are just poorly paid? No, they're both. The schools are poorly funded and the teachers are poorly paid.

Oklahoma had some of the biggest cuts to spending per student in the past 10 years, and that still hasn't gotten back to pre-recession level. So the way it plays out is like teachers have been saying, yeah, we don't even keep the lights on in the hallways at school to save money. Our students have to wear coats in the classroom because we're not allowed to put the heat more than 57 degrees. Their textbooks, I got two pictures from teachers that they sent me of the textbooks their students use. For one, they don't even have their own textbooks. They can't take their textbooks home.

That's not even the biggest problem. They are so old. They're like 20 years old. 20 years old. That's older than probably most of your students. Yes. Well, obviously older than all my students. I think they're missing pages.

They don't have covers. And there's such a shortage of teachers in Oklahoma, for example, that 20% of the schools are on four-day weeks. Teachers in the Oklahoma City schools, about a quarter of them left last year. So their class sizes are getting bigger. So teachers are not only having to teach more students and making less money, so they want to raise. So this is a statewide movement. What has the governor of Oklahoma said? Yeah, so teachers are really upset with her right now, because even though she signed a pay raise

last week, it was going to be $6,000, which teachers think is not enough for what they want. Now she was on CBS just on Tuesday saying, Teachers want more, but it's kind of like having a teenage kid that wants a better car. And that really, really pissed off teachers. And now everyone's really upset at the governor. They're upset at some lawmakers who just refuse to pass anything because they think that the $6,000 pay raise that they passed last week is enough and they should be happy. If anything, it's not helping because now they're even more motivated to go and keep banging on legislators' doors, which is what they're doing. In Oklahoma, thousands of teachers back at the state capitol now demanding that lawmakers listen to their pleas for higher salaries and more funding for the most basic classroom supplies.

So what are teachers getting paid? And the raise was $6,000 that they were offered? It was going to be $6,000, which is quite a bit. But if you think about just the cost of living, they haven't gone to raise in 10 years. So that barely even covers the cost of living. And another is that health care costs have been going up and states have been wanting to pay less of the premiums. So that that's another combination. And it doesn't include they want it stacked up for the next three years as like a one time teacher pay raise. It does not include other state employees. Or maybe if it does, it's like a fraction, a quarter of what they actually wanted. And now they're walking out. And now they're like, sorry, that's not enough. We're not going to thank you. We want you to really fund public education.

So are principals and superintendents on board with this and supporting teachers? Or is there consternation there just even within school districts in Oklahoma. Just for comparison, in West Virginia, there are 50. In Oklahoma, there are 550. So it's a lot harder to get a consensus. So not every single school district is on board, and it tends to be broken along, like rural versus urban. A lot of the bigger school districts, the ones that serve about 75% of the students, they were all like, we're shutting down Monday. And some of them were going to try to reopen Tuesday, but teachers have been calling in sick. And so they had to shut down. At this point, I think about half of the school districts are closed. And that's, you know, most students are now not in school. Schools that have been trying to reopen haven't been able to because teachers have been calling in sick.

Teachers are calling in sick en masse in some sort of organized fashion? Yeah, like they're actually saying, okay, if your school district isn't shutting down, you have to call in sick, use a personal day. And if, I don't know what percentage is, but if a certain percentage of teachers call in sick, they have to shut down the school. And so that's what's been happening. My name is Samantha Freeman, and I am a kindergarten teacher for Oklahoma City Public Schools. This is my fourth year there. I make about $34,000 a year gross. I take home just a little bit over $2,000 a month. I'm a single parent and I have two children who are still at home. I cannot afford to put my children on my insurance. The insurance I

have to add my two sons that are still at home would have cost me about $600 a month. So they are currently uninsured. I work several little side hustles. I drive Uber and Lyft on Friday and Saturday nights. I sometimes drive it on Thursday nights. Occasionally I drive on Monday and Wednesday for a couple hours after school when my son's at Spanish. I also have another job through Oklahoma City Public Schools where I tutor a couple of days after school. So I'm always just kind of looking for side hustles to supplement my income and kind of just keep my head above water financially. I absolutely love teaching, and I love working with kids, and it was my intention to continue working as a teacher, but I have made a very difficult decision,

one I've wrestled with back and forth quite a bit over the last several months, but I have had to make the decision that this is actually going to be my last year to teach school. I just absolutely cannot afford to continue to teach. I can't justify it and I can't continue financially this way. Why do we pay teachers so poorly in America? That's just ahead on Today Explained. This is Yochly Driesen from Worldly, Fox's weekly podcast on the most important stories in the world. I've worked in journalism for nearly 20 years, and even I feel a bit overwhelmed by the news right now. There's President Trump and Vladimir Putin. I had a call with President Putin and congratulated him on the victory,

his electoral victory. And there's the North Korean nuclear crisis. North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. And then there's the Russia investigation. The Russians may have something on him personally

that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult. Want to make sense of all of this? Subscribe to Worldly. We're unpacking all of these stories and more every week. Come find us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your favorite shows. What's Luke's mom's name? It's Barb. Hello? Hey, mom. Hey. Hey, it's Luke. Hey, Luke. Hi, Luke's mom. This is Sean. I'm with Luke as well. Oh, I recognize your voice. Whoa. All right. We did it. Thanks for listening. Of course. I love it.

So I wish we were calling just to check in and say hello, but we're calling because Luke told me that you have a Quip toothbrush. I do. I do. I heard it on the radio, and I thought, well, hey, I think I'll try that. Were you in the market for a new toothbrush, or was the ad just so compelling that you thought maybe it's time? Well, to tell you the truth, I was in the market.

They had recommended that I use one. I never was sold on the idea because I thought they were expensive and big and bulky. And then when I heard your ad, it kind of was intriguing. So I looked online and checked into it and I thought, yeah, this might be what I'm looking for. Right. I said something like, you know, they start at just $25. You can get your first pack of refills for free. Go to getquip.com slash explain. And you were like, why not?

You said all that. And I said, why not? And you know what? It was everything you said it would be. Really? I like, I like everything about it. This is Today Explained. I'm Sean Ramos-Firm. And today we're talking about teachers and we're hearing from teachers. For me, the reality of education funding is deeply frustrating. Rod teaches outside Detroit.

I love teaching. I didn't expect to make a fortune in the career, but my pay was increasing enough to live a comfortable life. And then suddenly everything stopped with the Great Recession. And when the economy began to recover, I figured that normal levels of funding would return. But here we are 10 years later, and the normal pay increases have stalled. And for my personal situation, I have a small family, and the number on my paycheck is actually less now than it was eight years ago. To give myself pay raises, I have several teacherpreneur side hustles. And it just seems like these days, most state legislators equate increased funding to wasteful spending, which is a shame. And I'm hoping that all of this is beginning to change.

Alexia, why do we pay our teachers so badly in this country? I don't know. That's a good question. I mean, teachers seem to think that there's just not, American culture in general does not value what they do, that they're like just glorified babysitters, anyone can do their job. And, you know, there's that phrase that those who can't do teach and that really- And those who can't do teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym. I hadn't heard that one. Yep.

But so I don't know why teachers are paid so badly. You know, someone suggested that maybe, you know, teachers are overwhelmingly women and there might be like some sort of a gender issue there. It's definitely a problem. And you mentioned in Oklahoma specifically that teachers basically haven't gotten a raise in 10 years. When I think about where the country was 10 years ago, I think there was something like the worst recession we ever had. Does that have something to do with this? I know, the Great Recession. Yeah, it had a lot to do with, you know, not just in Oklahoma, but all across the country. But here's the thing. So that's why this is happening now. That's why teachers are kind of rebelling now, because everyone during

the Great Recession was losing their job in the private sector. I mean, people were just grateful to even have a job. So they definitely weren't expecting raises. But another thing is that in certain conservative states, not only did the recession come, but then suddenly Republicans took control of all the legislatures, the governor houses, and they were like, we're going to just cut taxes. We're going to cut income taxes, business taxes. So a lot of states started doing that. And they're like, this will lead to an economic boom. And of course, you know, it didn't create a boom to make up for all that lost revenue.

And if your main spending is on school, so the schools got cut and they don't want to raise the taxes, which is what the teachers are saying. They're like, okay, enough cutting taxes. You need to raise taxes so you can pay us and give us a raise. And that's what a lot of these Republican lawmakers don't want to do. You talk about like GOP's sort of takeover 2010 after the census, which we're still seeing the effects of. And then you look at where the teacher strikes are, and it's in all these red states, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona. Is there a correlation there that things are worse for teachers in red states than they are in blue states? Are democratic-led states paying their teachers better than red states? I think that's a slight oversimplification,

because there are some red states that have been increasing school spending, Alaska, North Dakota. So it's not strictly a long blue state, red state. But what I would say, it is the red states that decided to just slash taxes. That are the ones that you're now seeing teachers, not only are they now ranked at the bottom of the pay, their school funding has been cut. And as this economy recovers, they're still getting funding cuts and not getting paid. So I would say that it's red states specifically that just went crazy with the tax cuts. I think we can all sympathize with teachers. And this obviously sounds like a really garbage situation to be in for teachers in several states. But how does this affect students, all of this? I mean, the fact that their teachers aren't being paid a fair wage, it sounds like that's even keeping up with

inflation and that their books are falling apart. I mean, is the education suffering as well? Here's the thing, like the reason that teachers are doing this and having support, they have support from parents because parents know the teachers are fighting for funding for education. The students are actually marching with their teachers at the Capitol in Oklahoma City. I think on Monday, one teacher actually held class outside the Capitol. Let's hear it for class at the Capitol, everybody. Yeah. Okay. Just so you guys know, this is a thing that was created in the classroom through class discourse. My second hour came up with the idea and we just

looked at each other and we realized that we could actually make it happen. So again, one more round of applause for all of you guys. What we're doing here is symbolic and it's about you. I've been up at the Capitol with some of my colleagues. This is Samantha Freeman again. She's the Oklahoma kindergarten teacher we heard from before the jump. We took Samantha Freeman again. She's the Oklahoma kindergarten teacher

we heard from before the jump. We took our signs and went up to the rally, and it's a little discouraging that our legislature seems to be digging their heels in and unwilling to fund education. And, you know, we've had legislators say that we need to be in the classroom, we need to go back to school and do our job,

but it is their job to fund education in our state. And I would like to say back to them that I would like them to do their job. I appreciate that they're willing to give us a $6,000 raise and to restore a very small portion of the funding that has been cut to education. And I have talked to no teachers who are up there rallying because they wanted $10,000 instead of $6,000. Teachers are up at the Capitol demanding that they do something because we need funding for our students. This is not about a teacher raise. They gave us a raise, but I still don't have the things I need to make my children successful. I'm a kindergarten teacher and I have 28 children in my classroom this year.

You just cannot meet the social, emotional, or academic needs of children when you're in a classroom that large with no assistant. My name is Denise. I teach in Tucson, Arizona. I have been teaching since 1995, so this is the end of my 22nd year in education. My base salary here in Arizona in my current district is $36,121. I have a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in bilingual multicultural education with a Spanish bilingual emphasis. So yeah, my husband is also an educator with a master's degree in professional counseling. He's a counselor at an elementary school. And together we earn less per year than one spouse does in most of the households of our

friends and family. I'm so happy to see my colleagues finally standing up in Arizona, thanks to the actions of the brave teachers in West Virginia and Oklahoma, and we stand with them. I pray for change. My children and all children in this state deserve better than this. We're not gonna take it. No, we're not gonna take it. Thanks to Alexia Fernandez-Campbell and Lauren Katz at Vox

for helping us get in touch with teachers across the country. Today Explained is produced in association with Stitcher, and we're part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. The show is produced by Bridget McCarthy, Noam Hassenfeld, and Luke VanderPloeg. And then there's Afim. He's our engineer. Breakmaster Cylinder makes music for us, and you can do something for us. Rate and review Today

Explained on Apple Podcasts. Tell the world how much you love the show. Thanks in advance. right now we're vacationing in ocean city okay and did you bring your quip with you you know i didn't bring it with me and I should have because I have noticed that I was happier with it. It's something like when you go and get your teeth cleaned at the dentist, how much better it feels. That's what I would compare it to. That's great, Barb. Thanks so much for listening to our show and thanks so much for going to getquip.com slash explained. Well, I love it and And I love your show.

It's been great to listen to. I've learned a lot. I really have. Thanks, Mom. Talk to you soon. Thanks so much, Barb. Appreciate it. All right.

Have a great day. Bye-bye.