Oklahoma Legislator Urges Blacklist of Striking Teachers

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.—An Oklahoma state legislator has introduced a bill that would ban teachers from striking and prohibit any teacher who walks off the job in a labor dispute from ever working in any school in the state. Rep. Todd Russ (R-Cordell) told CNN the bill was needed because while it’s illegal for teachers to go on strike in Oklahoma, last spring’s nine-day statewide work stoppage was technically a “walkout.” The difference, explained Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest, was that teachers weren’t formally refusing to work while schools were in session, but enough told administrators they’d be absent that it forced schools to close, and they could then legally protest. Russ, who campaigned on a platform of “the value of hard work” and “Godly values,” said that the walkout hadn’t won anything more than the state had already promised, and the best way for teachers to get better pay or more funding is to lobby elected officials. Priest responded that if teachers hadn’t walked out, “we would not have gotten the increase for our students that we gained.” She called the bill “retaliation.” Read more