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Randi Weingarten, president of the nationwide American Federation of Teachers, posted a message on Twitter Tuesday saying the Republican-dominated West Virginia Senate \"is keen to destroy public schools & retaliate against its teachers.\"

Lee, the West Virginia Education Association president, said the Senate bill was rammed through and sent back to the House of Delegates with little to no input from teachers.

\"It appears that they are more interested in listening to the outside interests than they are the educators across West Virginia,\" Lee said at news conference Monday.

State Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson County, said the bill has \"great provisions\" in it, including additional 5 percent pay hikes on top of 5 percent raises teachers won after striking nine days last year. The bill also creates a $250 tax credit for teachers on the purchase of classroom supplies or other educational materials.

He said the bill's goal is \"getting our education system out of the doldrums.\"

\"Why would anyone want to stand in the status quo and stay in the past?\" Carmichael said.

\"PHOTO:
John Raby/AP
PHOTO: Striking teachers wave at passing cars outside Poca High School, Feb. 19, 2019, in Poca, W.V.
>

Last year's West Virginia teachers' strike, which started on Feb. 22, was followed by strikes in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona and most recently Los Angeles and Denver.

West Virginia has no comprehensive collective bargaining statutes, meaning public school budgets are set by state legislatures and not local school boards like in California and Colorado.

In states like West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona and Kentucky, strikes by teachers are considered illegal and educators risk being fired for participating in them. Because teachers in those states have shown statewide solidarity in their job actions, state government leaders have had little choice but to bargain.

\"What's happened in all these places is over the course of the last 10 to 15 years is that people have tried to make good schools and students front and center have gotten demeaned, disparaged, called names, schools have been divested,\" Weingarten told ABC News in an interview last week. \"And so what has happened ... is a sense of possibility that when you join together you can indeed be stronger together, but you have to join together on a mission that the community really adopts.\"

The West Virginia strike comes ahead of one being planned by Oakland, California, teachers on Thursday.

\"Teachers
The Associated Press
Teachers and school personnel clap as West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee speaks in front of the House of Delegates chamber at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston, W.Va. on the second day of a statewide strike by teachers
>

The Oakland public school teachers' contract expired in July 2017. The union and the Oakland Unified School District began bargaining on a new contract in December 2016, but after 30 negotiating sessions encompassing 200 hours of bargaining, an impasse was declared on May 18, 2018. Both sides agreed to mediation but that failed to break the stalemate.

As part of the negotiations, an arbitrator was assigned to do a fact-finding report. The report showed an 18.7 percent annual turnover rate for teachers in the school district.

To stem the tide of teachers exiting the Oakland Unified School District, which has more than 37,000 students, the union is asking for a 12 percent raise over three years, smaller class sizes and more support staff. The school district has offered a 5 percent raise over three years, retroactive to 2017.

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