TUCSON (KVOA) — A statewide education rally in Arizona is set for Tuesday. Some teachers aim to tell state lawmakers that our schools across Arizona need more dollars and attention.
“Teachers are leaving Arizona in droves, Tucson Education Association President Margaret Chaney said. “New teachers are leaving.”
Chaney said Arizona is near the bottom in teacher pay.
“We are 49th in the states as far as teacher salaries go,” she said. “For many years, people have said it is because Arizona is so much cheaper and the cost of living is better and on and on. That’s no longer true. The housing market is crazy.”
Arizona has a better than $5 billion surplus. Some public school teachers say in order to have our kids and teachers thrive, part of that money must go to making our schools stronger.
“We want to see more money go to career and technical education, the teachers’ academy because we’re getting a lot of people in now that don’t have the background to teach,” Chaney said.
“I want to see at least $1 billion go to K-12,” State Rep. Morgan Abraham, a Tucson Democrat said.
A group of rallygoers expects to descend on the state capitol building in Phoenix around 10 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Abraham believes there is bipartisan support in both houses where Republicans hold slim one seat majorities to get a meaningful education package done.
“I hear a lot of people at the capitol talk about being competitive,” he said. “Being competitive on taxes and business climate but we’re not competitive on our education. And, in order to get competitive, we need to increase the funding to reduce the class size and address the teacher shortage.”
Abraham knows he and his colleagues could spend much of the next month hammering out the state budget. He contends the focus must be on education.
“We need to invest in the future so the next generation of Arizonans deserve the same opportunity I had,” Abraham said. “And, that means putting dollars in the classroom.”
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