From today’s CBS Evening News:
Teachers in Sacramento went on strike Thursday for the first time in 30 years. They’re accusing the school district of backtracking on promises of better pay and smaller classes.
In the past year, more than 400,000 teachers in nine states have gone on strike, affecting more than 5 million children.
Raising three boys on her own in costly California is a daily struggle for Victoria Carr, who has been teaching for 12 years.
“It’s hard. It really is. Am I making a difference? Is it impacting people,” she said.
With teachers on the brink of a strike, Carr went to a school board meeting to confront the district superintendent.
“I want them to see me fight for what’s right. I want my students to know that they’re important enough to me that I’ll fight for them and I’ll say what needs to be said as best I can,” said the seventh-grade teacher.
Nationwide, the average teacher salary has decreased by 4 percent in the past decade, when accounting for inflation. Eighteen months ago, the Sacramento School District avoided a strike by giving their teachers a raise. Thursday’s strike is solely about the students. The teachers say the district did not hold up the rest of that deal, which included smaller classroom sizes, more nurses, psychologists and after school programs.
Read the complete article here.