Colorado, Support Your Teachers Union - Don't Threaten Jail Time

Following in the footsteps of states like West Virginia, Colorado teachers - who are underpaid and have a broken pension system - are planning to hold a walk out of their own.

Rather than negotiating with teachers to work out fair compensation and keep classrooms open, lawmakers have decided to float a bill that would make it illegal for teachers to strike and to immediately fire any teacher that attempted to do so. To make matters worse, teachers could face up to six months in jail for striking.

Threatening teachers in this way does not fix the problem. If a teachers' jobs are too important to allow them to strike, then surely they're important enough to compensate decently.

We urge state lawmakers, including the bill's conservative sponsors, to respect the teachers union's right to organize and to work out a fair and amicable solution.