PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona teachers who have organized to push for big raises and a restoration of school funding are threatening a statewide walkout, following the lead of educators across the country, including Oklahoma where schools have been closed for more than a week.
Leaders for a new grassroots group called Arizona Educators United say they could announce a date for action at any time. The group of about 40,000 members says Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican lawmakers who control the Legislature have not responded to requests for negotiations.
Teacher and organizer Noah Karvelis said the group sees no choice but to move to walkouts.
The likely walkout is part of a wave of teacher rebellions in states led by conservative leaders. In Oklahoma, classes in the state’s biggest school districts were canceled Tuesday for the seventh day. Educators have not said when their walkout will end, but classes in Oklahoma City and Tulsa have been scrubbed for Wednesday.
Leaders of Oklahoma’s largest teacher’s union want a capital gains tax exemption repealed and for the governor to veto a repeal of a proposed lodging tax as they push for more education funding. They already won pay raises of about $6,100, but many educators say their classrooms need more money.
Other states, including West Virginia and Kentucky, have seen teacher strikes or protests this year as the education community revolts against years of cuts and lower spending.
Arizona education advocates say the state is spending nearly $1 billion a year less on schools than before the Great Recession, and they want that funding restored.
The state’s teachers are among the lowest-paid in the nation. The teachers group that sprang up in March is demanding a 20 percent pay hike and annual raises, higher pay for support staff, a restoration of school funding to 2008 levels and an end to new tax cuts until per-pupil funding reaches the national average.
The Arizona group has held #RedforEd protests at the state Capitol and statewide for weeks and plans “walk-ins” at least 1,000 schools across the state on Wednesday to highlight their efforts. Karvelis said 30,000 educators have ratified the group’s demand list and they are nearing their goal of getting enough teachers to approve a statewide walkout.
“It looks like we’re going to hit those numbers shortly here,” he said before heading to his teaching job early Tuesday. “In the meantime our governor and our Legislature have not responded to our demands, our request for meetings. So it seems like the only language they understand is escalated action here.”
Ducey is sticking with his plan to slowly boost school funding, promising a 1 percent teacher raise and $100 million in funding for districts this year as a start to restoring nearly $400 million in cuts.
“We will continue each year to put more resources into K-12 education to better serve our teachers and students,” his spokesman, Daniel Scarpinato, said in a Tuesday statement. “He meets with teachers regularly and wants to continue a dialogue about increasing our investment in Arizona schools and teachers.”
Republican House Speaker J.D. Mesnard said Tuesday that the Legislature remains focused on boosting school funding but warned that a strike could end up being “a bit of a mutual self-destruction scenario.”
“I think everybody is supportive of finding ways to get more money to schools, more money to the classroom, more money to teacher pay,” he said. “However, if you strike, that ratchets thing up to a whole other level with consequences. That impacts people all over the state and you could see some or many turn against that type of maneuver.”
Democratic Rep. Rebecca Rios, the minority leader, said she doesn’t fault the educators for wanting to walk out since they’ve been pushed to a “breaking point.”
She called Ducey’s proposed 1 percent raise for this year “insulting.” But the likelihood for anything greater is small, she said, with a Republican-controlled Legislature that has yet to act on the teachers’ demands, she said.
“If you want a different outcome, you have got to change the players at the table,” she said. “If we get to this next election and no one is paying the price for this crisis, then I guarantee you nothing is going to change,” she said.
Derek Harris, a co-founder of Arizona Educators United, took to Facebook Live on Monday night to share the news that a date was about to be set for a long-term walkout. He urged teachers to be sure they’re ready to leave their classrooms, to communicate with parents and seek the support of their superintendent or school boards for their job action.
“Do not wait anymore,” Harris said. “The time is coming, we need to make this happen and that mean you’ve got to get things in place.”
He also urged teachers to contact churches or day cares who could handle child care needs.
“If you don’t know what they’re going to eat for lunch that day, you’re not ready,” he said. “If you think the superintendent is going to come to your school and start handing out pink slips that day, you’re not ready.”
The campaign has been circulating an online petition in support of a walkout that had at least 16,750 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
Another petition supporting the #RedforEd demands had nearly 37,000 signatures.
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Arizona elementary teachers earned a median wage of $43,280 in 2017 and high school teachers $46,470, the third and sixth lowest in the nation, respectively. Adjusted for local cost of living, federal figures show elementary teachers actually rank 49th in earnings and high school teachers 48th.
Me likey.
Do the states that are striking have teacher’s unions? If not, their red state legislators can’t blame the Teacher’s Union, as is their usual tactic. If there’s no union but just an collective of educators working together in common cause, it proves those legislators are just opposed to America’s teachers, public education and basic resources for learning by their own state’s children. No other way to put it.
In OK there’s a union. Legally they are not allowed to strike, which is why it is critical for local school boards to cancel classes. In fact teachers are generally supported by their districts.
The article mentions that the two big cities, Tulsa and OKC, will be out Wednesday. Word is that school will be back in session Thursday in Bartlesville, the wealthy district that has been the leader at the forefront of this movement, and that they will return to sending delegations like they were every Tuesday before the walkout. So I’m not sure what the game plan is there.
Meanwhile, and this is really important, Sen. Coburn’s anti-tax group is going to exploit a loophole to try to take away the funding that has already passed there - part of the wording prevents the laws from going into effect if the additional taxes don’t go into effect. So they are planning to get the 41,000 signatures required to put the measure on the ballot as a referendum - and pending the vote, no taxes could be collected on those measures, and thus no funding increases either.
School funding and the teacher walkout are incredibly popular, but that might not matter. And more discouraging, there seems to be little incentive for politicians to follow their constituents on this issue. The GOP has an almost complete lock on the state, and the vast majority of incumbents don’t have a challenger in the primary, or even in the general. Even the seat belonging to one of the reps in the town where this movement started, who is leaving due to term limits, has no Democratic candidate. In fact progressives have reregistered as GOP just so they can vote in a primary contest because there is literally no point in holding out for the general.
Just for a moment I have to rail against the lack of support the national party has had for Oklahoma. They’ve got an incredible opportunity there this year, in fact they have been amazingly successful in some recent special elections, but will likely just give this one to the undeserving GOP anyway.
/rant
I really hope the best for Arizona. And Kentucky. People actually want education for their kids, and there’s a lot of energy and organization around this issue.
Arizona teacher here. Teacher’s unions are weak in Arizona- it’s a right to work state. Some districts have more participation in the union, but not mine. I’m the only member at my site, as far as I know. We are having a walk-in tomorrow morning and every upcoming Wednesday as part of the #red for ed campaign. I’m not sure how our district leadership feels about a walk-out, but we have been walked on for a very long time, and there seems to be at least a tacit encouragement for teachers to get involved speaking out and taking a stand. Ducey ran on cutting taxes - and has cut (mainly corporate) taxes every year since getting into office. And then, surprise, surprise- there’s not enough money for education. The universities and community colleges keep taking the hits and tuition is hardly “as near free as possible” by any stretch of the imagination.
I can remember having $400 per year for expendable supplies and $400 for capital purchases- but for the last number of years it has been $200 a year for expendable supplies only. Throughout the state, there are numerous unfilled positions, many long-term substitutes, non-certified teachers who are going through various alternative certification programs and they are even importing teachers from overseas. But I have former colleagues who have quit teaching for nursing or other programs and other colleagues who have moved out of state where they instantly earn $15,000- 20,000 more. I think that the situation is dry tinder just waiting for a match to flame up.
Thanks for sharing that. What a shithole of a state. They used to be so progressive. I believe I heard OK was the first state to provide full time pre-K in the country. What a mess those GOPers have made of a decent public educational system. Coburn is a jerk. Even when Obama kept saying he was on friendly terms with Coburn, Coburn couldn’t wait oftentimes to stab him in the back at every opportunity when he was in office. And so disappointing to hear Dems didn’t field any serious candidates as contenders against those goobers currently running for office. For all the bragging being done by Dems about having a 50 state strategy it sure doesn’t look like OK is on their radar much.