Phoenix Arizona--Signs that Arizona’s public schools are in trouble—and that
the state’s Republican leaders are not doing enough—seem to be appearing at an
alarming rate. Most recently was the news that a national study rated
Arizona the least attractive state in the country for teachers.
The Learning Policy Institute’s research shows that Arizona
has the
highest state-wide turnover rate and that nearly a quarter of Arizona’s teachers
will be eligible to retire by 2018. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the
Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association’s voluntary survey reported
more than 8,000
openings among 130 of Arizona’s school districts this year.
But, while it’s no longer surprising that our state ranks
so badly in so many measures of quality education, the problems facing our
schools are still shocking. Arizona has faced teacher shortages for years. And
House Democrats have been trying to solve that problem for years. This year, we
proposed
creating a new teacher mentoring program, instituting teacher retention
bonusesand restoring $116
million in K-12 funding that Republicans cut in 2015. Republicans rejected
every one of those proposals.
Tucson Unified School District’s Superintendent, H.T.
Sanchez, whose district is currently facing nearly 170 vacant teaching
positions, said of the problem, “If
that’s not shocking people right now and encouraging people to get out of
teachers’ way and let them do a good job, then I don’t know what’s going to wake
folks up.”
Neither do we. We don’t know what might ultimately convince
Legislative Republicans and Gov. Ducey to do more for public schools. But House
Democrats are going to continue fighting for public education—for the nearly one
million students in Arizona’s public schools and their teachers—at every
opportunity because our state’s future hangs in the balance.
