Walkout

North Carolina Teacher Strikes to Affect One Million Students

Around 15,000 teachers to protest Wednesday.

Around one million North Carolina students will have an unexpected day off Wednesday as their teachers stage the latest round of statewide protests to demand higher pay and more money for education. The one-day walkout has prompted school districts across the state to cancel classes and Mark Jewell, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said as many as 15,000 teachers are expected to march at the state Capitol in Raleigh Wednesday morning. The action is the latest in a string of teacher uprisings across the U.S. this year that have prompted strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, and Colorado. Jewell said the main goal of the strikes is to increase education funding in the state, which is about $2,400 below the national average, and an increase in pay, which Jewell said is about $9,000 below the national rate.