Across the nation, from Puerto Rico to Kentucky and Colorado to California, a powerful teachers’ movement has been growing. The potential of this movement first became apparent when West Virginia’s teachers went on strike in February and ultimately won a 5 percent raise for all public employees. Following this, Oklahoma’s educators mobilized and won raises and additional funding. After that strike, teachers in my own state of Arizona went on a six-day strike and won $406 million in funding. (Arizona teachers then went on to collect 277,000 signatures for a ballot initiative for further funding.) And already this school year, thousands of teachers in Washington went on strike and thirty-three thousand educators in Los Angeles are getting ready to walk off the job.

The successes of these movements, as well as the persistent and rampant attacks on public education, have inspired many educators across the nation to build a teachers’ movement in their own state. While every movement has been different, I want to share my experience as one of the teacher-organizers who helped with the Arizona movement. I hope that by breaking down what happened in Arizona, I can help others as they begin to build or grow their own teachers’ movement. With the proliferation of standardized testing, devastating cuts to education funding, and the continual devaluing of educators, teachers must now more than ever continue to fight for the schools that they and their students deserve.