West Virginia Seeks to Make Teachers Strikes Illegal

W. VA SENATE BLUNTS RED FOR ED REDUX: The West Virginia Senate on Monday passed an education bill that would outlaw public school strikes, giving administrators authority to fire teachers who walk out to protest for better pay and school funding, the Charleston Gazette-Mail's Ryan Quinn reports. 

"Language has been added specifically saying that public worker strikes are unlawful and school workers may be fired if they strike," Quinn writes. "A provision that would deny pay for school workers who strike was taken out between the draft and the bill's official introduction Saturday, but a similar provision was returned to the bill through an amendment on Sunday."

West Virginia was ground zero for the Red for Ed movement in 2018 when thousands of teachers walked off the job, closing schools in every county. Teachers in Oklahoma, Arizona and Los Angeles followed suit. More from the Gazette-Mail here.

For our younger readers.  Banning strikes by teachers in common in Right to Work states, particularly across the South.  ( like Texas)  Often these states also limit the rights of teachers to bargain. California teachers got these rights in about 1976.