Watch Protesting Oklahoma Teachers Sing Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’
School teachers in Oklahoma have been walking off the job recently to protest for more funding at the state capitol in Oklahoma City. They were captured yesterday by news cameras singing Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It."
The teachers are seeking a budget increase of $200 million in order to replace textbooks and desks that are falling apart. Teachers throughout the state have been sharing pictures of their working conditions on social media to raise awareness of the situation.
You can see video below.
Gov. Mary Fallin recently signed measures that added $50 million to the budget, as well as giving a $6,000 raise to teachers and an extra $1,250 to support staff. "We must be responsible not to neglect other areas of need in the state such as corrections and health and human services as we continue to consider additional education funding measures," she said.
"Teachers want more," Fallin said, as reported by CBS News. "But it's kind of like having a teenage kid that wants a better car."
Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest told CNN that the new money "will buy less than one textbook per student in Oklahoma. We've been cut over 28 percent in the last 10 years in education funding, and our schools just can't maintain all of the supplies, instructional materials, textbooks, even copy paper. Copies are limited in schools to maybe 30 a week."
According to a 2015 study in The Washington Post, Oklahoma spends $7,672 per student on education. That puts the state in 47th place, with only Arizona ($7,208), Idaho ($6,791) and Utah ($6,555) spending less.
In addition to singing outside the state capitol, teachers are also attempting to plead their case to local representatives. Liz Hoggett, a teacher from Norman, Okla., told CBS News that she and her colleagues had waited for more than an hour outside the office of their state senator but that he left for a roll call without meeting them. "I want him to hear that we are not going anywhere," she said. "We're doing this for our kids."
Snider noticed the use of his song and lent his support to the teachers. But he couldn't help point out the irony of how a song that had once been singled out as one of the "Filthy Fifteen" by the Parents Music Resource Center has become a standard rallying cry.
Back in 2015, Snider told us that he couldn't really see what the fuss was about all those years ago. "I was portrayed as the poster boy of everything wrong with heavy metal and rock and roll – when in truth, Twisted Sister was one of the least offensive of the bunch," he said. "We looked offensive, but content-wise, we really weren’t in the league with some of the other bands that there were these concerns about."