EUGENE, Ore. -- With teachers planning to walk out May 8, some parents and school administrators say they're concerned about the impact it will have on students and other community members. Eugene School District 4J Superintendent Gustavo Balderas said he agrees with the message teachers are trying to send. He said he also wants more funding for schools. However, the district does not condone the walkout, and he thinks there could be a better way to get the message across. Roughly 735 teachers said they were participating in the walkout, according to Balderas. And due to the high number of teachers participating, the district had to cancel classes for students and teachers on Wednesday. "It's an impact on our community,” Balderas said. “Anytime there is an impact on our community, I feel it, our community feels it and I think there is a different way of doing this. Again, not my choice, but it's an action we had to do." No teachers will be paid tomorrow, and Balderas said about 150 teachers who don’t want to participate in the walkout are upset. District officials said teachers could lose upwards of hundreds of dollars in pay. School officials are also concerned about kids missing class, along with the strain it could put on working families and parents who have to find different arrangements for their children. "I'm not sure it's quite the time for them to be able to do it during a school day when the kids already have missed a lot of school due to all the snow days and everything else,” said Brent Gee, a former teacher and current Eugene resident. The Bethel School District has also canceled classes Wednesday, but the Springfield School District will still hold classes. Teachers in Springfield plan to show their support for education funding after the end of the school day.<doc-sep>Eugene and Bethel school districts have cancelled school Wednesday as their teachers plan to join a statewide movement of walking out and rallying at the state capitol for more funding for K-12 public education. More than 700 licensed staff (equal to about three-quarters of the total licensed staff) pledged to walk out in Eugene School District alone. The districts did not have enough licensed staff to operate and cancelled the regular school day — meeting the teachers’ goal to disrupt school so dramatically that lawmakers might take notice. Springfield School District will have a normal school day, as its union decided against a walkout. Instead, Springfield educators will line Main Street after school Wednesday in their own way of protest. The statewide walkout has been promoted by the state educators union, Oregon Education Association, for over a month. The union represents more than 40,000 educators at pre-K through grade 12 public schools and community colleges. OEA is pushing for the Legislature to earmark $10.7 billion to Oregon’s K-12 public schools and $787 million to its community colleges. Teachers and state union leaders hope the walkouts along with multiple demonstrations and rallies in Eugene, Bend, Portland and Salem will spur lawmakers to action in delegating this money. “There is I believe a growing awareness that we can't continue with business as usual,” said Tad Shannon, president of the Eugene Education Association. “And I think educators are going to have to lead on this, because we keep putting our hopes in the Legislature and our public officials to come to grips with this problem and it hasn't worked.” Both Bethel and Eugene school superintendents made statements that the districts do not condone the walkouts. And the impact is unprecedented, according to district spokesperson Kerry Delf. “We certainly have seen student activity — many times over the years, including some notable times in just the last couple of years,” she said. “But a teacher walkout on this large scale that has led us to close schools is not something we have seen in recent memory.” Why it’s happening The Eugene Education Association, which represents teachers from both Eugene and Bethel schools, will start picketing at 8 a.m. Wednesday in a handful of locations around Eugene before holding a rally downtown at 11 a.m. near the Park Blocks, the area where Saturday Market is held. From there, local teachers will take buses to Salem where they will rally with other teachers across the state in front of the Capitol where speakers from OEA and the National Education Association will speak and meet with legislators. “We’re really trying to bring attention to the crisis that's in our schools,” said John Larson, OEA president. “Thirty years of disinvestment in schools has lead to a point where it just can't happen any longer.” This statewide movement mirrors the larger one taking place across the country known as “Red for Ed.” Teachers dress in red and stage various protests for more school funding, better work conditions and increased teacher pay. It has taken hold in states like Arizona and Oklahoma, which both rank in the bottom five states for average annual teacher salary at $48,000 and $46,000. Oregon is No. 12 with an average salary of about $63,000 and an average starting salary of about $36,000 a year. The national average salary is just over $60,000, according to the National Education Association. Increased teacher pay was a significant point of going “red for ed” in other states, but Shannon vehemently argues Eugene’s teachers are walking out for better school resources and not increased salaries noting that teachers in Eugene and Bethel will not be paid for May 8. “We haven't even talked about salary issues,” he said. “That is not the driving force in this May 8 walkout. The driving force is demanding the Legislature do what it needs to do to significantly generate new revenue for schools." OEA is demanding the increased funds from the state come from new money funded through increased business taxes — not from other areas like higher education or healthcare that also impact students. “The answer is not to put more burden on already struggling families,” Shannon said. “But we think with corporations and large businesses making record profits and paying among the lowest corporate taxes in the country, that they can afford to pay more toward schools. ... This has to be new money, otherwise it doesn’t get us anywhere.” Last week, the Oregon House of Representatives passed the Student Success Act, which would allocate $2 billion per biennium to K-12 education. But Larson said there’s still a way to go with getting it through the Senate and Gov. Kate Brown’s seal of approval. Then it would likely be taken to Oregon’s citizens on a ballot. So even if it passes in the Senate by Wednesday, the walkouts still will happen. “The angst in the system and the tension among our members is what’s driving this action,” Larson said. “We’re trying to give people an appropriate channel for it.” Some schools and services still open Though school is closed, some services and activities will continue Wednesday in Bethel and Eugene school districts. For both districts, advanced placement and international baccalaureate testing will continue. At Bethel schools, after-school youth sports will continue. At Eugene schools’ athletic competitions and scheduled outdoor schools will be held with the exception of Wednesday’s daytime outdoor school at Howard Elementary School. Athletic practices and after-school activities are voluntary. Eugene schools also will have free breakfast and lunch for students at the following schools: North Eugene High, Churchill High, South Eugene High, Sheldon High, Madison Middle, Spencer Butte Middle, Cal Young Middle and Chavez Elementary. Neither district will make up the day in June, as they will meet the state’s requirements for instructional time for most grades without it. Eugene schools, however, still are evaluating whether it will have to seek a waiver for that instructional time for this year’s seniors because they get out earlier for graduation or if they will have to add additional time.<doc-sep>Across Oregon, teachers and supporters participated in a one-day walkout. Thousands rallied and marched in the "Red for Ed" event, which follows other teacher walkouts and strikes in West Virginia, Los Angeles, and the Carolinas. KLCC reporters Brian Bull and Chris Lehman provided this coverage of activities in Eugene and Salem. Story 1: Hundreds of Eugene-area teachers lined the streets today as part of a statewide walkout. As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, educators want legislators to increase school funding.... More than two dozen Oregon districts closed for the walkout, giving students a day off and teachers time to vent. In Eugene, many gathered at the Park Blocks in the downtown. Erik Bishoff teaches photography and drafting at Willamette High School. When asked what he considered the biggest burden for Oregon teachers today, he replied… “Class sizes. 100 percent. When I reflect on my own time as a student, our class sizes were much smaller then. I was able to find more mentor situations, more opportunities to learn in smaller groups, or even individually. "Today, it’s really difficult to form relationships with students, and that’s something that our students really need.” Property taxes were capped in 1990 through Measure 5, which critics say harmed school funding statewide. A bill in the statehouse would increasing education funding by 18 percent.Springfield schools did not hold a walkout, but took to Main Street after school instead. STORY 2: Smaller classroom sizes, funding for PE, music, and the arts, and adequate mental health counseling. Those are just some of the things on Oregon educators’ wish list as they staged a statewide walkout today (WEDNESDAY). We hear from our reporters in Eugene and Salem, starting with KLCC’s Brian Bull… KLCC's Brian Bull and Chris Lehman report on the teacher walkout from Eugene and Salem. The Park Blocks of the downtown was a sea of red, as hundreds of teachers in matching t-shirts and their supporters gathered for music and speakers. Among them was Molly Nord. She teaches at Cesar Chavez Elementary. She says the pressing message overall is that schools need better funding now. “Oregon has certain issues," says Nord. "We don’t have a sales tax, there’s a lot of things that play into it, and there’s been ballot measures passed that have really hurt schools in the long-term. And I think we all need to start planning and making sure that we have sure long-term funding for these kids.” One of the event organizers is Jennifer Scurlock, a 16-year veteran who’s currently an English teacher at Churchill High. She says classrooms are too packed for students to have a quality learning experience. “According to national research, they suggested our classroom size, especially K through 3, are 18 students or lower. I’ve had classroom sizes even in this past year, of 36 to 38 students in an Advanced Placement class," she says. "And so we’re seeing where kids are struggling because they don’t get the one-on-one time that they need with a teacher.” Scurlock adds that the well-being of Oregon’s students is also jeopardized until more money is spent on schools. “We do not have enough counselors, we do not have mental support specialists…even having a nurse on staff, our nurse is shared amongst multiple schools.” The big fix that educators – and Democrats – are pushing for, is passage of House Bill 3427, known as the Student Success Act. It’d put a billion dollars a year towards education funding if passed. That’s in the hands of lawmakers, as my colleague in Salem, KLCC’s Chris Lehman, explains… It’s a bill that’s being held up in a political standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon Senate. Most GOP lawmakers haven’t reported for work at the capitol this week. By denying a quorum, they’ve been able to delay the tax package from moving forward, at least for the time being. That stalemate was a hot topic under the blazing sun of Salem’s Riverfront Park. Democratic Representative Barbara Smith Warner, who helped write the tax bill, told the crowd she thought the measure was bound to pass eventually. “What has been our goal all along? Dedicated, stable funding for education. We are almost there.” After a round of speeches, the two thousand or more teachers and students in attendance marched about ten blocks to the Oregon Capitol. Maraline Ellis joined the stream of people who filled State Street from curb to curb. She’s been a teacher in the Salem-Keizer School District for nearly 30 years. “The most significant deficit that we face right now is really staffing,” Ellis tells KLCC. “Our class sizes are beyond comprehension compared to what I was used to when I started teaching.” When the marchers arrived at the capitol, many of them flooded the rotunda and the building filled up with the sound of chants and songs. For KLCC News, I’m Chris Lehman in Salem. Copyright 2019, KLCC.<doc-sep>More than 20,000 teachers participated in statewide one-day walkouts across Oregon on Wednesday to express their support for public education. They were joined by thousands of other students, school workers and families. Twenty-five districts were forced to close due to a lack of adequate staff and substitute teachers to operate, while in other districts, teachers left class early. Major rallies and protests took place in Portland, Salem, Eugene and Bend. Educators, like their counterparts across the United States and internationally, feel compelled to fight against the poor school conditions produced by nearly four decades of budget cuts and austerity. Overcrowded classrooms, high caseloads for nurses and school psychologists, and poorly funded Special Education and Arts programs have become the norm for public schools. Representatives of the World Socialist Web Site Teacher Newsletter distributed leaflets to attendees at the rally in downtown Portland, speaking with educators and supporters about the need to build rank-and-file committees to unite the working class in a common fight to defend public education, in opposition to the Democrats, Republicans and the trade unions. Over the past year, the unions have worked mightily to isolate the emerging struggles of teachers and to shut down any strike as rapidly as possible. In keeping with the pattern set by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) throughout the teachers’ strike wave over the past year, the Oregon Education Association (OEA) and its affiliated local unions called the demonstration in an attempt to diffuse the mounting anger of educators. At the same time, they sought to use the one-day action to bolster the Democratic Party, which has been directly responsible for the defunding of the Oregon education system as the dominant state party since 1988. Framing the rally as a means to appeal to the state legislature to “finally invest in public education,” the OEA unions have heavily promoted the Democrats’ Student Success Act, which proposes a .57 percent business tax to allocate $1 billion annually to K–12 schools by 2020. Though this amount is less than the bare minimum $2.5 billion recommended by the Quality Education Commission and will do nothing to resolve the crisis of public education, OEA President John Larson declared that the proposal would provide “game-changing investments in all students.” The cuts to public education, which in Oregon have been carried out by the Democrats, have been drastic. Dithya, a ninth-grade student at Sunset High School, spoke with reporters at the Portland rally about the fate of education if nothing changes. “Class sizes are going to grow larger. Electives will get cut, since they aren’t necessary to graduation.” Her friend Isabella added, “At my sister’s school, they proposed cutting the whole Spanish program.” She continued, “Right now, teachers aren’t able to provide the best education, since they can’t pay attention to us like they’d like to. They can’t help each individual student, or take all our questions.” “Kids are the future. Without education, we are screwed.” Though she expressed doubts and questions about socialism, Dithya said, “I do believe in equal opportunity. And I believe that every human has basic rights to food, shelter, and education.” Many of the protesting teachers recognize that this supposedly “historic” funding bill will not resolve the fundamental crisis that they have watched unfold in their classrooms over decades. “Two billion is small change,” a high school teacher told WSWS reporters at a demonstration of thousands in downtown Portland. “We have so many problems to address. Seven billion could do something. So I am mad, and it’s hard for me to be here [at the rally]. This is all to diffuse a larger strike, which [the OEA unions] don’t want. The Portland Association of Teachers say they’re ready to fight, but I don’t know.” Bryan, an eighth-grade English teacher at Harriet Tubman Middle School, expressed additional criticisms of the efforts by the unions and Democratic Party to diffuse a broader struggle. “In Oakland, the teachers led wildcats. This [rally] here today is a field trip. The unions are telling us this is a historic thing, where we can organize and really show them [the state government]. But I am ready to stay out and not going back in until we get everything we need. This kind of low-impact action takes away anything that makes a mass movement powerful.” He asked, “How is this gathering of educators connected to all the other movements, like West Virginia? How are the OEA and NEA connecting us here to those movements all over?” Lynn, a teacher at Beverly Cleary K–8 School and friend of Bryan, answered, “It’s all divide and conquer. ... The corporations run the show.” Bryan rejected the idea that the problems of public education could be resolved through identity politics, stating that the underfunded school districts had not been helped by the hiring of Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero, who had been touted as a means to strengthen “diversity” and benefit “black and brown” students. “Politicians are great at shapeshifting,” he declared, of dressing things up as if they were progressive when they aren’t. “It’s like Obama. Do I need a killer to look like me? No.” To carry their struggle forward, educators must form new organizations of struggle completely independent of the unions, to fight for what schools and students need, rejecting what big-business politicians claim is affordable. These organizations need to be based on an understanding that the attacks on public education are not local issues, but are a national and international phenomenon driven by the global crisis of capitalism, in opposition to the unions’ insistent efforts to isolate strikes and focus on local school boards and budgets. The task facing teachers everywhere is to build a broad movement of the working class, uniting teachers with other sections of workers, to carry out mass demonstrations and to prepare for a general strike. Oregon educators can help build the independent political movement necessary to wage a real fight for fully-funded education that meets all social needs. We urge all teachers, school workers, students and families to sign up for notifications and share your contributions with the WSWS Teacher Newsletter .<doc-sep>
Educators around Eugene-Springfield took to the streets Wednesday to wave signs and call out for more state funding for K-12 public schools. "We just need more, more for our students," said Anne Goff, president of the Springfield Education Association, the union that represents teachers in the Springfield School District. By more, Goff meant more nurses, librarians, physical education instructors and support staff — all positions that have been slowly disappearing at local public schools in recent decades. Teachers and other school workers in Eugene aired parallel complaints about state funding. Schools in the Eugene and Bethel school districts were closed Wednesday due to the planned walk out of teachers (most of whom had requested the day off). The educators held rallies from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at busy street corners near high schools around Eugene, then an 11 a.m. rally in downtown Eugene before a large contingent rode in buses to rally more in Salem at the state capitol. Springfield teachers taught a full day of classes before holding their own rallies from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. along the city's Main Street. The Eugene Education Association, an educators union representing teachers and support staff in the districts, organized events in Eugene. The union is an affiliate of the Oregon Education Association, a statewide union, that planned the statewide rally in Salem. >Related: What you need to know about Oregon’s teacher walkouts on Wednesday As the librarian at Sheldon High School, Kori Kunz said she's one of a few librarians in the Eugene School District. On Wednesday morning she also was a picket captain, helping lead the crowd of a couple hundred gathered at Willakenzie and Coburg roads. "Teachers shouldn't have to also be nurses, counselors, art teachers, PE teachers, librarians — I'm trying to think of who else is missing from our schools," she said. "There are a lot of professionals who should be in our schools." State budget woes also have led to large classes, short school years and low graduation rates, said rallying educators in Eugene and Springfield. Some students and their families, as well as some of the educators' own children and family, joined the picket lines to support the teachers and other school workers. Rally goers wore red shirts and posted to social media using #RedForEd. Springfield School Superintendent Bruce Smolnisky walked down Main Street after school on Wednesday to show his support of the rally, stopping to shake hands of educators. He didn't have a red shirt, but did note that he wore a red tie. "I wanted to be here to let them know that we are behind them," he said. Earlier Wednesday, about 1,000 educators and their supporters gathered at the Park Blocks in Eugene. "We're out in force, en mass, today to demand that we get the (state) funding for our students and the needs that they have," said Sabrina Gordon, president-elect of the Eugene Education Association union and a reading specialist at Awbrey Park Elementary School. Graduation rates are even worse for marginalized students, said Relée Davis, who works with students who have English as a second language at Fairfield Elementary School in the Bethel School District. Davis goes by the pronouns they and them, and they spoke at the downtown rally. More state funding would provide more counselors and other support staff to help students in need of more attention, they said. "Educators can't carry this burden on their own," Davis added. Follow Dylan Darling on Twitter @DylanJDarling. Email dd@registerguard.com.