CNN Tuesday March 6th, 2018 "West Virginia lawmakers reach deal to give striking teachers pay raise" Eric Levenson and Sarah Jorgenson In West Virginia, striking teachers have caused cancellation of nine consecutive days of school. The motive behind this is to increase the pay and benefits of teachers in the state who have historically been some of the lowest paid in the country. The proposed solution will raise not only the teachers pay, but all state employees will get a 5% raise.
On February 22, about 20,000 teachers began the strike by walking out of schools across West Virginia. Public school teachers in 55 counties across the state participated in this show of organized labor strength. Educators demand higher wage and benefits. This has caused nine consecutive days of public school to be cancelled. West Virginian Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill Tuesday that gives a 5% pay raise to all state employees, this includes the striking school staff. The House of Delegates and Senate unanimously approved the bill and the Governor signed it into law. Teachers are expected to go back to work Wednesday. What led up to this? West Virginia ranks number 48 out of the 50 states on how much teachers are paid. It's one of the only states where wages went down between 2015 and 2016. The percentage gap between teachers annual average wage and the national average range from 24 to 35 percent depending on elementary to high school. The annual average wage doesn't account for deductions for social security, retirement, and health insurance. These low wages push a lot of qualified educators to leave the state. I believe this is a step in the right direction. There's still a long way to go before a lot of teachers in the country make a livable wage. I think if teachers collectively made more money, it would be better for everyone involved.
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Billy's grandfather entered his hounds in a hunting championship.The other competitors are all adults with expensive gear and nice hounds. Little Ann wins the beauty contest on the first day. The other hunters are nice to Billy. Dan and Ann tree 3 coons adn qualify for the finals. When the night of the finals comes, the dogs tree their first coon quickly. Then a blizzard comes while they're chasing their second coon. When they all rush to the sound of the dogs they realize Billy's grandpa is missing. They find him with a twisted ankle unconscious. He wakes up and tells Billy to chop down the tree and get the coon. When he does, three coons jump out. The dogs kill two and one gets away. They go after it and when they find the dogs they treed their fourth coon. This wins them the championship and Billy wins 300 dollars. One night the dogs treed a mountain lion. They fought for a while but when Billy tried to save his dogs, the mountain lion knocked him to the ground. When it was about to pounce, his dogs jumped and saved him. Billy hit the lion in his ax in the back and it eventually died with both dogs attached to it's jugular. Little Ann only had a hurt shoulder but Dan was hurt all over. As they were heading back his entrails got caught on a root. Billy pushes them back into his body. They try to save him but Dan dies.
I think a great sequel would be set in the future in the same time period as the book started. Billy would be an adult. Right after he finishes telling the story it reminds him of how much he loved his dogs. He wants to get that feeling back and has a lot of free time so he decided he wants to get hunting dogs again. The sequel is centered around him raising his dogs and noticing they share a lot of the same characteristics of his old dogs. I would like this to have a happier ending however. I will comment on Matthew Mau and Sam Gressitt's blog Billy hunts with his dogs every night. The price of coonskin goes up because of the demand in the New England states so Billy gets to hunt all he wants. He sells the skins at his grandfathers store and gives his dad the money. The coons start tricking Billy's dogs while they're hunting which puts them into danger. Especially in the winter months. The coons do tricks in the snow which eventually led Little Ann to fall into the river and almost die. Billy fished her out using a long stick and his lantern handle.
The Pritchard boys are rotten kids who dared Billy to come hunt the "ghost hound" on their property. It is a coon that has evaded every hound that has ever tried hunting it. When Billy goes, his hounds actually tree it. Billy decides he doesn't want to kill it because he thinks it is impressive, but then one of the boys gets their hound Old Blue. He wants to kill the coon. Billy wrestles him and then one of the other boys shouts because Old Dan and Little Ann are fighting Old Blue and winning. The boy Billy is wrestling hops up with an ax in hand and heads for Billys dogs to kill them. Billy runs after him but the boy trips on a root. When Billy looks back after getting his dogs off Old Blue, the boy is dead. He fell on his ax. If I was in this book, I would definitely be friends with Billy. Everyone else around him seems like asses. I think Billy has really good qualities as a person and he gets a really rough time. He could use some friends that aren't his family members. The kids who live around him are trouble makers and are really rude. The Pritchard boys are the people that I would have a really hard time getting along with. They act like the entitled kids in town but they're also hilbillies like Billy. I will comment on Matthew Mau and Sam Gressitt's blog. |
AuthorLeah Maxwell Archives
June 2018
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