UPDATE: Striking W.Va. teachers picket, pack Capitol

UPDATE: 2/19/19 10:30 a.m.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia public school teachers and school service workers are hitting the picket line and packing the state Capitol on the first day of a statewide strike.

The only county where public school classes are being held Tuesday is in Putnam County, where school parking lots were nearly empty. A few cars trickled in to drop students off but no buses were seen.

Teachers and supporters from other counties joined Putnam County teachers on the picket line as motorists honked their support.

Teachers’ unions oppose complex legislation under consideration that would create the state’s first charter schools and allow education savings accounts for parents to pay for private school.

Poca High School English teacher Meghan Stevens says students “are not for sale.”

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Almost a year to the day after West Virginia teachers went on strike that launched a national movement, they’re doing it again.

Nearly all of West Virginia’s 55 counties have called off public school classes Tuesday as teachers protest education legislation that their unions view as lacking their input and as retaliation for last year’s nine-day strike. That walkout launched the national movement that included strikes in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Washington state, and more recently, Los Angeles and Denver.

Now the movement has come full circle.

Leaders of three unions for teachers and school service workers say how long this one goes on will be a day-to-day decision.

An amended bill that the Senate passed Monday now goes back to the House of Delegates. Among other things, it would create the state’s first charter schools.