OEA Moves Up Deadline For Teacher Strike

The Oklahoma Education Association moved up its deadline for lawmakers to increase funding for education and give pay raises to teachers.

In a video posted on the OEA Facebook page, President Alicia Priest said Oklahoma lawmakers have until April 1, 2018 to pass funding bills. If that deadline isn’t met, she said teachers will go on strike April 2, 2018.

Priest says the last 48 hours have been "equal parts heartbreaking and inspiring." Heartbreaking because of the inaction of the Oklahoma Legislature, and inspiring because of the teachers and support staff ready to channel their anger into action.

"Our goals remain the same," Priest says. "To force the Legislature to pass a plan that provides teachers and support professionals a significant pay raise and restores critical funding to our classrooms."

She said "our members are ready to act now," which is why they are accelerating their strategy by moving up the deadline.

In the video, Priest says the movement is already making an impact. She said OEA was told Tuesday night that lawmakers were "scrambling to come up with a plan that would be unworkable, untenable, and not the solution at all. We will not allow lawmakers to once again shortchange our students, our teachers and our support professionals."

She said they are putting lawmakers on notice that they must work to pass an education budget that includes a significant pay raise for teachers and support staff and additional funding to classrooms. If they don't do that by April 1, OEA is calling for state-wide school closures on April 2nd.

3/6/2018 Related Story: OEA Sets Deadline For Teacher Pay Raises Or Schools Shut Down

This announcement came one day after an initial deadline of April 23, 2018, was announced.

You can watch the full video below: