2018 Colorado teachers' strike

The 2018 Colorado teachers' strike was a two and a half week strike that began on April 27, 2018, with teachers in some districts across the state walking out to protest low pay, low state-wide education spending, and mismanagement of the state teachers' pension. The strike ended on May 12, 2018 with an agreement between the teachers' union and school officials for a 2 percent pay raise. The strike was part of the larger wave of teachers' strikes in the United States where protests occurred in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona. Background State of public education in Colorado The Colorado Education Association says that teacher salaries after inflation have dropped 17 percent in the last 15 years, and that the state has underfunded education by $6.6 billion since 2009 by failing to implement a constitutional amendment that requires education funding to grow on pace with inflation. Pension costs