Fast Facts

#RedforED

Thomas Oviatt, Arizona Educator "I'm walking out because enough is enough. I have spent 30 years in education and in that time we've seen cut after cut after cut and excuse after excuse.

We've absolutely had enough," says technology specialist Thomas

Oviatt, an educator for 30 years. "Not only do I think Arizona students deserve better, I think that every student deserves better." - NEA Today

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, NEA President "We don't ask sanitation workers to buy recycling bins. We don't ask surgeons to buy scalpels and sutures. It's time to stop asking teachers to make up for the funding gaps created by their state legislatures. We are leaders, fierce organizers, we are the union and we will never stop advocating for our students. If legislators don't learn the lessons that we are teaching them with the national #RedforEd movement, they may find themselves working part-time jobs to make ends meet after this November's election." -

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, sixth-grade teacher, Utah

Teacher of the Year, and president of the National

Education Association.

Vermont-NEA "If you thought that what they are facing can't happen here, look no further than the governor's education plan, which would make massive cuts in programs that our kids depend on while slashing more than 2,000 of your jobs." - Vermont

NEA as it gears up to rally at the Vermont State

House to let the governor and lawmakers know it won't stand for this attack on schools, educators, and students.

2,000

Teaching positions in Arizona remained vacant four months into the school year, and another 866 teachers quit or never showed up before the beginning of the current school year, according to a survey of the 172 school districts in Arizona as published on Tucson.com

4The number of days students in Pueblo, Colorado attend school as the district changed from the typical five days to save money. Teachers in Pueblo went out on strike, for the first time since 1994, to advocate for more funding for schools, including more funding to settle their contract. Teachers in Pueblo are among the lowest paid in the state, despite a booming economy in Colorado.

68,000

West Virginia voted early this year, according to the Secretary of State. That's 23,000 more ballots compared to the 2014 midterm primary. The state's

Democratic chairwoman attributes the turnout in part to the state's teacher walk-out and strike.