The contagion
is spreading: Arizona is the latest red state where teachers – backed
by immense public sympathy – are staging first-of-its-kind state
walkout, protesting against the very idea of neoliberal austerity,
recognizing that with the GOP running their state and their nation,
that the problem is Republicanism, not some local phenomenon.
The right knows it too: that’s why billionaires are pouring money
into the development of talking points to discredit teachers. The red
states are on fire and progressives are cheering them on, but it remains to be seen whether Democrats will recognize the teachers in blue states who’ve been shafted by plutocrat-friendly Democratic leadership.
The teachers were offered concessions by the state, but they followed the example set by Oklahoma teachers
and demanded across-the-board economic justice for their colleagues
throughout the education sector, refusing to be divided and conquered.
