Giving Compass' Take:

• Laura Fay discusses the reasons teachers went on strike in 2018: higher salaries, better classrooms, and changes to their pensions. 

• How are students' education suffering as the teachers struggle? How can the private sector help mitigate public education challenges? 

• Learn why teacher strikes are unique.

Teachers staging walkouts around the country are asking for salary increases, but they’re also after something bigger: more funding for education, including replacements for old textbooks.

For instance, in Oklahoma, teachers want raises for support staff in addition to $200 million more for their schools over the next three years. Kentucky educators want to make sure the state budget passes with no cuts to education.

Wednesday marked the third day of walkouts in Oklahoma, with teachers continuing to press lawmakers to funnel more money into schools. Teachers said they felt Republicans, who control both chambers of the statehouse, were trying to wait them out.

The state’s largest school districts, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, announced schools will be closed again Thursday in anticipation of more demonstrations. A number of other districts have also canceled class, some through Friday, because of the strikes.

In Kentucky, teacher pay — and cost of living — are higher, but educators are protesting a change to their pensions that would make them more like the 401(k)s used in the private sector. Lawmakers have passed a bill that includes the pension change, which the governor supports but has not yet signed. Additionally, the legislature has passed a spending bill that increases per-student funding in public schools and includes other measures teachers support, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.

Read the full article about teacher strikes by Laura Fay at The 74.