DENVER — More than 150 teachers from the Englewood school district headed for their first statewide “Day of Action” outside the Capitol here April 16, demand-ing higher wages, increased school funding and no cuts to retirees’ pensions. The Eng-lewood teachers joined others from across the state in spirited noon and late afternoon rallies of several hundred.
“We want to teach, not proctor tests!” workers chanted, expressing anger at test-score-based schemes to rank teachers, schools, districts and funding. Some added calls to “Defend the undocumented,” in a state where there are debates about education for immigrant youth, and for “No guns in the classroom!”
“Our spirits are buoyed by what West Virginia and Oklahoma have accomplished so far,” Kerrie Dallman, a high school teacher and president of the Colorado Education Association, which organized the rally, told the crowd. The union has called its next “Day of Action” for April 27.