Arizona public school teachers began voting Tuesday on whether to strike despite Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s offer last week to raise their pay by 20 percent. The walkout vote is expected to be finished Thursday, with the results available that day.
Arizona Educators United, a union-backed umbrella group pushing for higher wages and education spending, called Ducey’s offer an “empty promise” because he has not detailed where the funds would come from. They also want funding for education increased by $1 billion overall, arguing that would address years of underfunding.
Ducey aggressively promoted the 20 percent pay raise Tuesday in a clear bid to sway teachers against walking out of their classrooms. “AZ teachers deserve to not only be respected for their hard work — but also rewarded. We need everyone’s help to get #20×2020 across the finish line, & raises into teacher paychecks,” he tweeted. The proposal would increase average pay to $58,000 annually.
“We need people committed to a true revenue stream and not empty promises. It takes a village and you aren’t including all the components that our kids deserve,” shot back Scottsdale, Ariz., teacher Eric Kurland.
State lawmakers expressed frustration that the teachers weren’t taking yes for an answer, arguing they would face a backlash if they did walk out. “I guess they’ll just have to do what they’ll have to do and we’ll see if the public finds that activity honorable or not. I think to strike when you’ve signed a contract is frankly dishonorable, and I think you are sacrificing the education of students for your own well-being,” said state Senate President Steve Yarbrough, R-Maricopa.
The Arizona teacher vote comes after a wave of similar walkouts and protests in Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia over long-stagnant pay for educators. Oklahoma teachers ended a nine-day strike Thursday after conceding that their legislature would not budget on their demands for additional education spending. State lawmakers had approved a $6,000 average pay raise for teachers just prior to the strike and reacted coolly to the union’s arguments that it wasn’t enough.
