Most Americans support teachers striking for higher pay, a new poll finds as Arizona teachers prepare a mass walkout on Thursday.
However, those supporters are far less supportive of new taxes to raise revenue for additional education spending, according to the poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
A solid majority of 78 percent said teachers are paid too little. A slight majority, 52 percent, said they supported teachers striking for more, with 26 percent strongly supporting a walkout. One-fourth disapproved and 22 percent had no opinion, according to the poll.
The results suggest the walkout, part of a series of similar strikes across the nation, could be a high-stakes gamble for the teacher unions and the legislature they are trying to prod into spending more. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has offered the Arizona teachers a 20 percent raise, matching their stated demand. Nevertheless, they plan to demand that the state increase revenue for education spending by rolling back tax cuts.
The survey was the first done since a series of teacher strikes and protests for higher pay began in recent weeks in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. Arizona teachers voted last week to walk out.
“Here’s the game that is played every year [at the state capitol]: Tax cut, tax cut, tax cut. A year later, there’s no money for schools. We’re tired of that game. No tax cuts passed this year! That is part of our demands. Legislators need to reinvest dollars, the billion dollars that they stole from our students and schools over the last 10 years,” Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas said Thursday during the announcement of the walkout.
Both sides would be held equally culpable for the strikes, the poll found, with 64 percent agreeing the teachers would bear a large amount of responsibility for disrupting student education and 63 percent saying the state government would bear much of the responsibility as well.
The poll also found that only about one in five people, 21 percent, were closely following the strikes, while nearly half, 48 percent, were only slightly aware of the walkouts, if at all.
Both sides would be held equally culpable for the strikes, the poll found, with 64 percent agreeing the teachers would bear a large amount of responsibility for disrupting student education and 63 percent saying the state government would bear much of the responsibility as well.
The poll also found that only about one in five people, 21 percent, were closely following the strikes, while nearly half, 48 percent, were only slightly aware of the walkouts, if at all.
