In the third day of a statewide teacher walkout, Arizona educators gathered in the hundreds at the state’s capital and in other cities around the state to demand teacher raises and more school funding. Hundreds of schools have announced they will close, and the state legislature is expected to introduce a budget proposal soon to try to satisfy the teachers’ demands. The walkout has carried momentum of a national movement of teacher demonstrations, starting with a successful West Virginia teacher strike that began in February and continuing to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, and Colorado. On Thursday and Friday, the teachers and their supporters rallied in the thousands in temperatures over 90 degrees at the capitol to demand increased funding. More than 1,000 schools in the state closed for the walkout.
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