Alberto Morejon, Hero of the Walkout that changed (for the worse) OK public education

Dissatisfaction with teacher pay has been brewing since the time when Presley moved to the state. It seemed like patience had worn out with the last round of budget cuts, a successful teacher’s strike in West Virginia and educators on social media becoming more vocal, she said.

One of those teachers, Alberto Morejon, a 24-year-old history teacher at Stillwater Junior High School and non-union member, created a Facebook page calling for a teacher walkout on April 2 if the $10,000 salary increase wasn’t met by April 1. Within a couple of days, the website blew up with union and non-union teachers. It currently has more than 72,000 followers.

One of Morejon’s colleagues is a 58-year-old teacher who mows a total of 27 lawns. He takes off right after school with the lawn mower in the back of his pickup, Morejon says, so he can help pay for his daughter’s college.

Many teachers work second and third jobs and qualify for food stamps. Morejon gave an example of a teacher with 25 years experience whose student-teacher recently left for a neighboring state and now makes more than she does. Last year, Oklahoma’s 2016 Teacher of the Year left for Texas.

As a result of the low wages, the state loses an average of 200 teachers a month from the profession or to other states.
“Teachers are kind of out of patience,” Presley said.

Oklahoma is a Right to Work state, which means teachers can’t be made to join a labor union or technically go on strike. However, many school districts across the state, aware of how dire the situation has become, have said they will issue a school closure on April 2 unless the state legislature passes a reasonable salary increase.