Blue Surge: 500+ Teachers, Other Educators Run For Office This Year

"More Than 500 Teachers And Other Educators Are Running For Office This Year," Dave Jamieson, Huff Post, 9/15/18.

As massive teacher strikes swept red states around the country earlier this year, many of those walking out of their classrooms in protest said they needed to change government from the inside. One of the country’s top teacher unions now says it has a comprehensive tally of 2018 educators-turned-candidates for state house and senate seats: 554.
That includes 512 running as Democrats and 42 as Republicans, the majority of them women.

The analysis from the National Education Association includes members of both its own affiliates and those of the other main teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers. The 554 figure includes current and retired teachers, as well as administrators and support staff in K-12 schools across the country. The union believes the 554 figure is “unprecedented.”
"What we are witnessing is not a moment but a movement by educators running for office to fight for the public schools our students deserve,” NEA’s president, Lily Eskelsen García, said.

The AFT has been tracking the number of its own members running for office this year, which is now just shy of 300. “Teachers want a political voice to secure a safe and welcoming environment for their kids,” AFT’s president, Randi Weingarten said. [T]hey also want to reverse the logic of economic austerity that has made crumbling classrooms and torn textbooks the norm.”

The teacher walkouts began in February in West Virginia. Teachers and support staff there closed schools in all 55 counties for nine school days to protest stagnant pay and rising health care costs, as well as dwindling funds for classrooms. Similar walkouts soon spread to Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona. Although each situation was different, the common thread between all of them was the gradual disinvestment in public schools over the years.

In Kentucky, educator Paula Setser-Kissick is running as a Democrat for senate district 12, which is occupied by a Republican. She said, “I believe we’re going to be a force in November.” And she noted that a Kentucky high school math teacher defeated the GOP house floor leader in May. “It sent a message not just to the Republican Party, but across the entire state,” she said. “Not only did a teacher win and defeat somebody in leadership, he did it with almost no money.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/more-than-500-teachers-and-other-educators-are-running-for-office-this-year/ar-BBNcenv



- Arizona teacher holds a sign at rally in the state capital in Phoenix, April 26, 2018.