Baradium: I'm not sure they're going to get as much support this time around.   The senators did get a chance to read the new bill, and that wasn't their complaint anyway.

If I'm reading this correctly they are upset that charter schools would be allowed and the possibility of homeschoolers having access to funds for materials.   Those aren't areas where teacher unions traditionally seem to have input and they aren't unheard of in the US either. In fact, both types of programs enjoy widespread support in areas they have been implemented and I haven't heard it resulting in teacher layoffs.

I just don't think they've planned this out enough.  If they have specific reasons for misgivings then they should be touting those.  What this article and another I read imply is whining and stopping feet while holding children's education hostage.

Sorry to those of you on here who are educators, but if there are good reasons for a strike, they aren't doing a good job in stating them.

There is a lot of ground to cover.  Charters typically get the same $ per student, but usually divert the portion for teacher retirement as profit to investors.  This means charter schools do not save any money.  No union means weak government leaders will seek to make big cuts to education since this is the largest budget item for the state and local budgets, at the expense of students and the economy.  Sam Brownbeck is a great example of this.  Also, without a strong union, weak political leadership will attempt to further violate the constitution (SCOTUS has made many decisions on equal education opportunities), by forcing anti-science and religious indoctrination into public schools, first in the form of morning Christian prayer and creationism in science classes.  A strong teachers union is likely to stop that and work with national education groups to do so (like when they stopped Betsy DeVos and the Discovery Institutes "Intelligent Design" nonsense).
The best thing government can do is to provide free education (yeah I know about my real estate taxes),  at every level since this has been proven to be the one big thing they can do to actually significantly grow the economy in terms of wages and other compensation (for the majority, not just a handful of the idle rich).  If you don't believe how important education is, just look at how the wealthy approach this subject.  Betsy DeVos has former astronauts teaching high school students to get their pilots licenses at her exclusive billionaire academy, and no other expense is spared (kids at her Chicago for profit charters not so much).
You also can't have democracy without a strong education system.  Charter schools are typically opposed to democracy and education, since the former requires local control and standards (ie less profit), and the latter means people will be all too aware at their scam.  This is because the for profit education industry is trying to reduce K-12 education to a script with a strong corporate central control to keep costs down.  Their plan is to have high school diploma as the only education qualification.  It goes downhill from there (from an article in the New Yorker magazine).
I don't have a problem with a local government fully committed to non-profit charter focused on high standards and equivalent or better teacher compensation and rights.  But at that point, why not just work within the public school system?
Is education reform hard?  Yes, but big important systems shouldn't be easy to change.  The biggest problem right now is health care costs which have skyrocketed, ballooning benefits costs especially for retirees.  Single payer would greatly reduce education costs and enable the building of new, better schools across the country.  Our health care system is a massive drag on the economy, costing more than twice that of any other HC system and with significantly worse outcomes.  The average American also is not benefitting from our absurdly large defense budget.  That money would be better spent on infrastructure for the 21st century.
Too bad we elected a small minded bigot to the White House, who put the country's biggest for profit charter corporation owner and anti-science billionaire as Sec. of Education.
Congress should also be mentioned here.  The majority are worthless idle rich, the new aristocracy.  Trump has been a good lightning rod for their efforts to undermine this country and add to their own wealth at the expense of the majority.
You gotta vote folks, especially Millenials who are paying more for these mistakes than us old farkers, it really matters, a lot.