The #RedforEd movement is organizing teacher walkouts in North Carolina, South Carolina, and New Jersey on Wednesday, May 1, a day known around the world as May Day, when Communist governments and Socialists celebrate their rise to power and future aspirations.
A march on the State Capitol by teachers wearing red shirts in Raleigh marks the #RedforEd event in North Carolina, which is hosted by both the North Carolina Education Association and the local #RedforEd group. More than half of North Carolina public school students will not have classes on Wednesday as the walkout has prompted at least 34 public school districts in North Carolina to shut down for the day.
“State legislative leaders announced Tuesday a budget plan to give school employees pay raises this year and to restore extra pay for educators who have advanced degrees. The announcement came a day ahead of a protest that’s expected to bring thousands of educators to Raleigh,” the News & Observer reported on Tuesday:
The budget meets one of the demands of the N.C. Association of Educators, which is bringing thousands of teachers to Raleigh on Wednesday to lobby for increased funding for education. The group has wanted the restoration of extra pay for teachers who have advanced degrees.
But it falls short of the NCAE demand this year for a $15 minimum wage for school support staff, 5 percent raise for all school employees and a 5 percent cost of living adjustment for retirees.
“Organizers hope to bring at least as many people to Raleigh as last year’s protest, in which at least 19,000 people marched on state lawmakers,” the News & Observer reported.
In New Jersey, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) is encouraging teachers to walk out in a number of local events organized around the state.
“NJEA members will be participating in a state-wide day of action. With actions planned around the state, there are events that anyone can participate in regardless of where they work or live. NJEA members are encouraged to wear red and post photos of themselves taking part in the acts of solidarity using #FixTheUnfairness and #RedForEd,” the NJEA’s website says on a page titled “Fix the Unfairness on May 1.”
According to the website:
The events are designed to build union strength as NJEA members continue the member-led campaign to pass three bills that would create more stability for students in every New Jersey public school.
The three bills are:
- The Chapter 78 Relief bill, S-2606/A-4352
- The Anti-privatization bill, S-296/A-3185/A-3395
- The ESP Due Process bill, S-3089/A-3664
If passed into law, these bills would return respect to public education that’s been long overdue.
In South Carolina, the local #RedforEd group is sponsoring a walkout and rally at the State House in Columbia. The South Carolina Education Association is apparently not officially sanctioning the walkout or the rally.
“Public school teachers across South Carolina plan to leave work May 1 and protest in Columbia to demand higher wages, smaller classroom sizes and other changes to their working conditions,” the Post and Courier reported on April 22:
The protest was announced over the weekend by SC for Ed, a teacher activist group. The group formed last summer and was inspired partly by teacher walkouts and strikes across the country, which have been widely promoted by the National Education Association labor union. . .
The national Red for Ed teacher activist movement has been promoted heavily by the National Education Association, a labor union, but teachers involved with SC for Ed have said their group is separate from the NEA’s state-level group, the S.C. Education Association. Teachers involved with Red for Ed nationwide have argued for higher wages, smaller classroom sizes and the curtailment of privately managed charter schools in states across the country.
The NEA has encouraged teachers to pick a day of the week to wear red in solidarity. In South Carolina, teachers have taken to wearing red on Wednesdays at school and any day they are traveling to speak with state lawmakers.
As Breitbart News reported in February, “This teachers union effort, called #RedforEd, has its roots in the very same socialism that President Trump vowed in his 2019 State of the Union address to stop, and it began in its current form in early 2018 in a far-flung corner of the country before spreading nationally. Its stated goals–higher teacher pay and better education conditions–are overshadowed by a more malevolent political agenda: a leftist Democrat uprising designed to flip purple or red states to blue, using the might of a significant part of the education system as its lever.”
#RedforEd May Day events in other states are less organized than those planned in North Carolina, South Carolina, and New Jersey.
In Arizona, for instance, where the #RedforEd movement was launched in March 2018, original plans for a massive rally at the State Capitol in Phoenix similar to the April 2018 rally that attracted more than 50,000 participants, have been scaled back significantly.
A variety of localized efforts are planned instead, a consequence of the pushback received from a group known as Purple for Parents, as well as teachers fed up with the constant pressure from Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas and his allies, both within the union he runs and in the #RedforEd-affiliated Arizona Educators United.
As Breitbart News reported, Thomas was recently “caught on video telling teachers who act as union liaisons in their schools to intimidate any colleagues who refuse to participate in walkouts apparently planned in anticipation of future #RedforEd rallies at the State Capitol in Phoenix.”
A walkout by teachers in Oregon, organized by the Oregon Education Association, is planned for May 8.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.