Albany teachers rally for funding

[TexasTowelie]

It was hard for teachers Laura Bassani and Karin Heley to carry on a conversation Wednesday afternoon as they stood on Pacific Boulevard in Albany, car horns blaring. They were the hype crew.

“We think it would be nice for them to hear the cars honking,” Bassani said, gesturing over the fence and in the direction of the recess field at Central Elementary School in the distance, where spots of red were starting to appear.

Those spots would become groups and those groups would become a crowd of about 250 educators decked out in red shirts, joining in Wednesday's statewide demonstrations advocating for education funding.

“This is not pie in the sky, this is the bare minimum,” said Oregon Education Association representative Ken Volante. “This is the bare minimum and they’re $2 billion short right now.”

Read more: https://democratherald.com/albany/albany-teachers-rally-for-funding/article_ebf7dfab-d38d-5600-af7c-a5292d2b0eb0.html

[TexasTowelie]

1. Bend-La Pine teachers, parents, staff rally to support education funding

A sea of 2,000 red-clad teachers from Bend-La Pine Schools, parents, kids and even dogs flooded downtown Bend on Wednesday afternoon as part of a statewide effort to urge Oregon lawmakers to fully fund schools.

The passionate crowd joined tens of thousands of teachers across Oregon to pressure the Legislature into passing the $2 billion Student Success Act, which aims to improve K-12 education through a business activities tax. People in Bend gathered after school Wednesday, but schools were closed for all or part of the day in 25 districts statewide.

Outside the Bend-La Pine office on NW Wall Street, the crowd chanted, cheered and waved signs that read “Today, we use our outside voices” and “Kids need counselors! Kids need art! Kids need you to vote with your heart!”

One small child held a sign that read: “Invest in me.”

Read more: https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/7146317-151/bend-la-pine-teachers-parents-staff-rally-to-support