The Oh, Hello and welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood.

Two guests today. First Education reporter Jennifer Berkshire will discuss the

teacher strikes in West Virginia and beyond and at the bottom of the hour, Veteran Budget

Analysts Stan Collander analyzes the fiscal follies in Washington.

First, Teachers.

The Teacher Strike in West Virginia took everyone by surprise, but now it seems to be spreading to other states.

What does it all mean?

Jennifer Berkshire is here to tell all.

She's co-host of the Education Podcast, Have You Heard, and is writing a book on

schooling in the era of Trump. In the interview, she cites an excellent article in

the New York Times by their education correspondent Dana Goldstein about the

teachers in Oklahoma.

A stunning sentence from that piece.

Across the state, teachers say they make ends meet by selling their blood plasma or by

working second jobs as luggage handlers, Uber drivers, or in lawn maintenance.

Here's Jennifer Berkshire.

Well, certainly there's been a lot of digital ink spelled over the West Virginia teacher strike. How significant a milestone do you think it was?

I think it was really significant and I think the best way to measure that is to see what's already

started happening in other states at least stalling in

Kentucky where the Republicans have just been trying to do really evil things

to the teacher pension program there. And it wasn't just that they were

they were out to cut the pensions of retirees which is illegal, but their long-term goal there is to move new teachers into a

...