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“It is not in any way an attempt to silence teachers' voices. They have the right to assemble, protest, associate, demonstrate whatever they wish and I would defend their right to do that,\" Gardner said.

He said there has been widespread \"misinformation\" about his bill. He explained that teachers and education unions would only risk going to jail or being fined if they defy a court order forbidding them to strike.

\"If this bill were to pass, they won't be silenced. They simply will not be able to walk out of the classroom together collectively and leave the job and shut down schools depriving children of continuity in their education,\" he said.

He said the West Virginia teachers' strike earlier this year prompted him to propose the legislation.

West Virginia teachers went on a nine-day strike that ended in March when the Republican governor there agreed to give all state workers a 5 percent pay raise. The labor action ignited a string of teacher protests in red states like Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona where the governors' offices and state legislatures are dominated by Republicans.

\"PHOTO:
David Zalubowski/AP
PHOTO: Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association, jokes with speakers during a rally outside the State Capitol, April 16, 2018, in Denver.
>

Arizona teachers voted last week to go on strike as early as Thursday in an effort to win a 20 percent pay hike.

Colorado is the exception. The state's governor, John Hickenlooper, is a Democrat and Democrats hold a majority of seats in the State House.

The bill proposed by Gardner and Lundeen will likely not pass. In a tweet Monday, the Colorado Senate Democrats called the proposal \"anti-worker trash.\"

This bill is anti-worker trash. Republicans would rather pay to throw teachers in jail than pay them to teach. #copolitics https://t.co/WXxhIUEyFO

— Colorado Senate Dems (@COSenDem) April 23, 2018

Dallman told ABC News that teachers in Colorado are frustrated that their efforts so far have not swayed lawmakers to adhere to Amendment 23, which was passed by voters in 2000 and requires the state to increase funding for education at the annual rate of inflation.

\"We've had over nine years now of chronic underfunding of our schools,\" Dallman said. \"We have lobbied over those nine years and we are fed up at this point. Obviously, those nine years of lobbying around education funding have not achieved the results that we think parents want and what public school educators want.\"

\"PHOTO:
David Zalubowski/AP, FILE
PHOTO: Elizabeth Garlick, a teacher at North Mor Elementary School in Northglenn, Colo., waves a placard during a rally outside the State Capitol, April 16, 2018, in Denver.
>

She said Colorado spends about $2,700 less than the national per-pupil average of about $12,000 a year.

Dallman said that over the last nine years, state lawmakers have underfunded education by $6.6 billion.

\"This year alone it was $828 million,\" she said.

She went on, \"So we want them to pay off that debt and adhere to Amendment 23 within the next four years. We want no new corporate tax breaks of any kind until we're funding our schools at the national per-pupil average.\"

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