A 1 cent sales tax is a great idea as proposed by legislator Noel Campbell today. As far as hurting poor people many of them have children they want educated and they are our teachers greatest supporters. The Governor and those Republicans insistence on not raising taxes is ridiculous given how low on the rung Az. teachers and education is considered (and I'm a retired teacher of 15 years). Get rid of a lot of the poor Charter Schools where mostly owners make out with higher salaries and teachers get much less than public school teachers. They're only good for a minority in our culture, and mostly upper middle class. (And I worked at a few briefly, had to quit they were so bad for kids!). And Arizona has available revenue - SPEND SOME OF IT TO IMPROVE THE EDUCATION AND THEREFORE THE ECONOMY OF ARIZONA - MORE COMPANIES WILL WANT TO COME HERE - THEREFORE MORE JOBS. Our Governors 20% raise in salary can't be trusted because it's not a promise he can keep, because it's not sustainable. He can make news for himself by offering it, but like Trump it's an empty promise - just a marketing ploy to make himself look good. Untrustworthy!
Sheri - 6 years ago
I support the walkout. Arizona needs to stop funding private schools and charter schools. Let's end the tax cutsIt is time to support our public school system. Our children deserve better! #RedForEd
jenifer parks - 6 years ago
I totally 100% support the walkout! I also expressed to my children 17, 16 and 10 that they should also support there teachers too! Even if that means spending additional time at school to recover from the strike! #loveourteachers
Don - 6 years ago
This is a right to work state. You walk out of your job, you lose everything. Fight this fight during the summer break not when it penalizes the students, especially the graduating seniors. Way too many selfish people, INCLUDING THE GREEDY TEACHERS.
John - 6 years ago
People who say they want the teachers to get a raise but don't agree with the way they are going about it (by walking out), need to get out of their bubble and learn about what has happened to public education in Arizona over the past 10 years. Schools took the brunt of the cuts during the great recession, and when the economy recovered, instead of providing appropriate funding for our schools our governor and our legislature continued to cut taxes, and then asserted that there just wasn't enough money to fund the schools appropriately. A lawsuit was filed, and a judge ordered the state to pay schools what they were owed, and they didn't do it. Schools have pounded the pavement trying to raise awareness of this issue for years, and this walk out is a last resort. For the sake of all of us in Arizona, I hope it works.
Margaret - 6 years ago
As difficult as this strike may be, I support it. Schools need to have sustainable funding that supports appropriate classroom size, adequate supplies, safe and clean campuses, reduces teacher turnover and attracts well qualified staff at all levels (janitor, teacher aides, support staff, and teachers). Since the great recession, school funding has been stripped and not restored. Investment in education of our children secures our future as a society. We need our legislature (and the corporations that benefit from an educated workforce) to step up and ensure that this part of our social contract is upheld.
James - 6 years ago
I just have a few questions. Did the teachers sign a legally binding contract? Does the contract guarantee raises? Does the contract allow strikes? Does the contract say to void if the teachers change their minds?
Dan - 6 years ago
People, get your facts right. This is all about money for teachers and not other employees. This union organized misguided idea, that clearly negatively hurts all students, is the absolute wrong approach. I support increasing pay to teachers but not these selfish tactics being pushed. The facts are teachers don’t work 12 months a year and the facts are that teachers are some of very few people that when they retire like other people do, get almost 90% of their annual pay for the rest of their life. To those who think raising taxes on corporations is the solution, wake up! Corporations pass their costs on to the people who buy their products and services. So who really pays is the consumer which is all the people you want to get more money with this stupid ploy!
Lori - 6 years ago
I support the teachers 100%. We entrust our children's lives and futures to these people and they give everything they have to give to make sure that every child has an equal chance to blossom. Even if that means they go without things at home. Things we all take for granted, clothing, food, maintenance on their vehicles; they put our children's needs before their own. Our children are our future why are we not funding education and thus personnel to achieve the best for all of them? As a parent and grandparent I want my kids to have the best chance to achieve their goals and I rely on the teachers involved with them over their formative year to help form these young astronauts, doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs and any other profession or lifestyles. I would ask everyone to think back to when they were in school and what teacher or teachers influenced them and their lives and professional choices. For me I had several and each one of them was very special! Lets give our children and grandchildren the same opportunities we had; support the teachers and the service staff so that our children and grandchildren have the brightest future they deserve.
Don ward - 6 years ago
Red forced
Steve - 6 years ago
As a parent of 3, one of whom is still in HS in the GUHSD, and even as a long time registered Republican, I am appalled at the seemingly endless nature of our State's underfunding of education. K-12 got devastated by the recession, and NO plan to do anything other than establish a new "normal" of an even more meager (than before recession) level of state support for education. Maricopa and Pima C.C. Districts have been entirely defunded for years...with no plan to return support, well after recession has ended, with increasingly dire results for our students and communities. Security and education are the two most important functions of our State Govt. Shirking this incalculably important investment in our state's future is a ridiculous example of eating one's seed corn. I will no longer vote for ANYONE who doesn't strongly support our state's public education systems. FIND ... A ... WAY - FIRST fruits, not whatever is left at the end..
Susan - 6 years ago
I absolutely support the Teachers 100%. I can’t believe Doug Ducey says if the teacher’s strike the students are the ones that lose out. Doesn’t he understand students have been losing out for the last 10 years. It’s time something is done about it. They had no problem taking money out of education in the past and if teachers walking out on the job is what it takes then so be it.
Kelly - 6 years ago
UGGGG so there may be a Teacher walk out for pay raises Sadly I don't support raises for all teachers only a portion. And you can be mad sad or indifferent BUT here is why I say only some should get the raises. There are a large portion of the teachers at our schools pushing their political agenda on these students and I say I don't care to have anyone's political agenda pushed on to my young children. I do not push my own agenda on them and I don't appreciate the school allowing it done to anyone else's let alone mine. My girls have had their teachers say things like Trump is a bad president They can't participate in Valentine's day because they want to uncommerciallize it. And they have to learn Spanish to make their classmates who don't know English feel included. AND last but the one that pisses me off the most is tell your parents their guns will be used for killing kids and the Military kills people. So until the issues like that are addressed I say only teachers actually teaching school subjects they should be teaching then raises should be done for them as it is usually done for others based on work preformance. And as a parent having to sit extra time to have to attend a school function anymore due to the fact that I have to take extra time off because it has to be taught in both English and Spanish and therefore takes more time is a irrating fact. And reading for English speaking students is drastically shortened because they have to teach in Spanish is causing education to suffer as well.
Norma J Wright - 6 years ago
I fully support this strike! Teachers need to be paid a good living wage so that they don’t need second and even 3rd jobs! So many teachers are forced to spend the little money they have to buy supplies that should be paid for by the tax payers. We all say that “children are the future”, but we don’t invest enough into them making for a bleak future!
Let’s put our money where our mouths more! Pay teachers more in line with the importance of what they do!!
Lastly:the children in our state deserve to not only be taught the “three R’s”. They need art, civics, government and most definitely music! The civics and government will help protect us from another reality show *president. Music and art make them well rounded! Oh, AND Critical Thinking!
Climbing down from soapbox now. Thank you!
Stephen - 6 years ago
Ed, I encourage you to go teach them. It's funny how you attempt to make it seem like teachers have it easy with all that time off. However, have you ever been in charge of managing 150 students a day for 8 hours a day? Have you spent an additional 5 hours every night grading and planning to prepare for the next day? Have you had to have you had to be constantly "on" at all times, ensuring your students are maintaining proper behavior while trying to help students learn in an environment that a lot of them don't want to be in? Have you had to write an 8 sentence paragraph describing the demeanor , behavior, and learning strategies of each of those 150 students during your holiday "break"? Have you spent your summer "break" writing and refining lesson plans for the start of the next school year? Have you done all of this while having a master's degree and making $36,000 a year? I'm never on break, I work as hard as I can every day for my students so that I can ensure that they have the best education possible. I could care less what people like you think because its apparent you live no idea what it's like to be a teacher in today's society.
Jennifer - 6 years ago
Yes! As a parent of 2 in public school, I fully support the teachers. I can’t stand to hear people call them sellfish - they obviously don’t have kids in public school. So many of our teachers are leaving the state (or the profession), our schools have numerous vacancies they can’t fill. If you want a quality education for your kids, you need quality teachers, and in Arizona, we pay teachers so poorly we can’t find enough teachers to take these jobs. This is a problem that has been getting worse every year for at least 8 years, when my youngest started kindergarten. I am so supportive of these teachers and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for having the courage and energy to fight for our schools!
Shannon - 6 years ago
A 1% raise for a teacher making $40,000 is $400. Suppose a teacher works 180 days, and only eight hours each of those 180 days (Yeah, right). That is a $0.277 per hour raise. Arizona teachers have been getting less than that for more than a decade. Now, take that $0.277, give a third away for federal and state taxes, Social Security, and a nearly 12% mandated state retirement withdrawal, and you have roughly $0.18 left. Mutiply that by 9. Now you know why teachers voted YES.
Patty - 6 years ago
I support the walk out 100% The media needs to inform the public what programs Ducey is cutting to come up with the raise and what he still isn't doing for our kids and the buildings, than mabey the ones who dont agree with teachers will understand why the teachers are still upset. I also want to know wasn't the lottery suppose to help our school??? Where is that money going???
Renee - 6 years ago
Yes! I am a parent of two kids in public school, and I am so grateful to the teachers for getting organized and doing this for our kids! I am so tired of sendiing my kids to public schools that are so poorly funded. Why should Arizonans have to accept being at the bottom of the funding totem pole year after year after year? Do people understand that current education funding is $1billion less todaThey are fighting for every kid in public school
Martha Davenport-Brown - 6 years ago
My grandmother was a teacher because she loved it and her student's. She didn't become a teacher to become rich. She would be ashamed of these so-called teacher's.
Susan - 6 years ago
The teachers need to stay in the class rooms so kids can finish out the school year, especially seniors who are about to graduate from high school. Hopefully the teachers won't ruin it for seniors to graduate on time by teachers protesting all about politics. When people don't like something they think they have to run to the streets and protest so the news can broadcast it.
Martha Davenport-Brown - 6 years ago
My grandmother was a teacher because she loved it and her student's. She didn't become a teacher to become rich. She would be ashamed of these so-called teacher's.
Chris - 6 years ago
The legislature is responsible for this They cut $$ from education for too long If schools shut down it rests on the legislature NOT teachers
Ed - 6 years ago
Teachers only teach 180 days a year that gives them 150 + days off a year why should we pay them to stay home and not work 5 months a year. They should only get paid during the school year no year round.
Mary - 6 years ago
Teachers signed contracts when they were hired for the Job! What there pay would be when starting their jobs. They need to stop protesting and get back in the classes and teach our children. Don't make the children in the middle of this politics. So maybe every single other job out there people can just walk out and protest because they think they need raises all of a sudden. I'm really sick of all the protesting about everything!!!
Robyn Gomillion - 6 years ago
Totally. The governor has given no information. Really why? Money is not there???
At any rate our teachers and their staff need a significant raise.
Jess - 6 years ago
Since moving to Arizona I have felt underrepresented and walked all over as a middle school teacher. Class sizes of 36-40 students are not productive, or healthy, for the students or the teachers. Students don’t get the attention they rightfully deserve, and I, as a new teacher, can’t devote my best to them due to the fact I have to work a second job once the school day is over. There is nothing selfish about these strikes. Teachers and students and the amazing support staff we are so lucky to have all deserve it. We tell our students to stand up for themselves and what is right. Now it is our time to show them what that means.
Randee - 6 years ago
This isn't just about teacher pay but also supporting the other aides, smaller classrooms, building safety, etc. No one needs to be fired for this strike but they need to be heard to correct the problems the education system has and those problems are only getting worse every year. I left the education system many years ago because nobody would listen or help the staff and building needs. The children have suffered and each school year it gets worse. Hopefully this sacrifice will open the eyes of the government and save public education and the students.
Andrea - 6 years ago
Yes Yes Yes I support it. I'm a parent and I fully support a strike. Teachers deserve more and I blame legislators and Doug Ducey for this, not teachers. They could have stopped this before it ever started by properly funding years ago. But they keep kicking the can down the line for someone else to deal with. Businesses are back on thier feet. Its time for us to go full in on education. We have a teacher shortage and we all should be concerned about that, yet instead we blame teachers for being "selfish"???? Yes I will be inconvenienced. But teachers deserve better with all the requirements put on them.
Don - 6 years ago
In favor of more education funding but come on... wait till end of school year. This is the educators being selfish and not selfless.
Dan - 6 years ago
Illegal strike. Grounds for termination!
Jim Montgomery - 6 years ago
Yes I support the walkout we need more school funding gov duvey you want to make cuts to the disabled come on let's cut your pay, congressmen's pay and Al the overpaid officials and show your support that you willing to make changes or you can take the pay the school teachers and support staff make and see if you can live on it
A 1 cent sales tax is a great idea as proposed by legislator Noel Campbell today. As far as hurting poor people many of them have children they want educated and they are our teachers greatest supporters. The Governor and those Republicans insistence on not raising taxes is ridiculous given how low on the rung Az. teachers and education is considered (and I'm a retired teacher of 15 years). Get rid of a lot of the poor Charter Schools where mostly owners make out with higher salaries and teachers get much less than public school teachers. They're only good for a minority in our culture, and mostly upper middle class. (And I worked at a few briefly, had to quit they were so bad for kids!). And Arizona has available revenue - SPEND SOME OF IT TO IMPROVE THE EDUCATION AND THEREFORE THE ECONOMY OF ARIZONA - MORE COMPANIES WILL WANT TO COME HERE - THEREFORE MORE JOBS. Our Governors 20% raise in salary can't be trusted because it's not a promise he can keep, because it's not sustainable. He can make news for himself by offering it, but like Trump it's an empty promise - just a marketing ploy to make himself look good. Untrustworthy!
I support the walkout. Arizona needs to stop funding private schools and charter schools. Let's end the tax cutsIt is time to support our public school system. Our children deserve better! #RedForEd
I totally 100% support the walkout! I also expressed to my children 17, 16 and 10 that they should also support there teachers too! Even if that means spending additional time at school to recover from the strike! #loveourteachers
This is a right to work state. You walk out of your job, you lose everything. Fight this fight during the summer break not when it penalizes the students, especially the graduating seniors. Way too many selfish people, INCLUDING THE GREEDY TEACHERS.
People who say they want the teachers to get a raise but don't agree with the way they are going about it (by walking out), need to get out of their bubble and learn about what has happened to public education in Arizona over the past 10 years. Schools took the brunt of the cuts during the great recession, and when the economy recovered, instead of providing appropriate funding for our schools our governor and our legislature continued to cut taxes, and then asserted that there just wasn't enough money to fund the schools appropriately. A lawsuit was filed, and a judge ordered the state to pay schools what they were owed, and they didn't do it. Schools have pounded the pavement trying to raise awareness of this issue for years, and this walk out is a last resort. For the sake of all of us in Arizona, I hope it works.
As difficult as this strike may be, I support it. Schools need to have sustainable funding that supports appropriate classroom size, adequate supplies, safe and clean campuses, reduces teacher turnover and attracts well qualified staff at all levels (janitor, teacher aides, support staff, and teachers). Since the great recession, school funding has been stripped and not restored. Investment in education of our children secures our future as a society. We need our legislature (and the corporations that benefit from an educated workforce) to step up and ensure that this part of our social contract is upheld.
I just have a few questions. Did the teachers sign a legally binding contract? Does the contract guarantee raises? Does the contract allow strikes? Does the contract say to void if the teachers change their minds?
People, get your facts right. This is all about money for teachers and not other employees. This union organized misguided idea, that clearly negatively hurts all students, is the absolute wrong approach. I support increasing pay to teachers but not these selfish tactics being pushed. The facts are teachers don’t work 12 months a year and the facts are that teachers are some of very few people that when they retire like other people do, get almost 90% of their annual pay for the rest of their life. To those who think raising taxes on corporations is the solution, wake up! Corporations pass their costs on to the people who buy their products and services. So who really pays is the consumer which is all the people you want to get more money with this stupid ploy!
I support the teachers 100%. We entrust our children's lives and futures to these people and they give everything they have to give to make sure that every child has an equal chance to blossom. Even if that means they go without things at home. Things we all take for granted, clothing, food, maintenance on their vehicles; they put our children's needs before their own. Our children are our future why are we not funding education and thus personnel to achieve the best for all of them? As a parent and grandparent I want my kids to have the best chance to achieve their goals and I rely on the teachers involved with them over their formative year to help form these young astronauts, doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs and any other profession or lifestyles. I would ask everyone to think back to when they were in school and what teacher or teachers influenced them and their lives and professional choices. For me I had several and each one of them was very special! Lets give our children and grandchildren the same opportunities we had; support the teachers and the service staff so that our children and grandchildren have the brightest future they deserve.
Red forced
As a parent of 3, one of whom is still in HS in the GUHSD, and even as a long time registered Republican, I am appalled at the seemingly endless nature of our State's underfunding of education. K-12 got devastated by the recession, and NO plan to do anything other than establish a new "normal" of an even more meager (than before recession) level of state support for education. Maricopa and Pima C.C. Districts have been entirely defunded for years...with no plan to return support, well after recession has ended, with increasingly dire results for our students and communities. Security and education are the two most important functions of our State Govt. Shirking this incalculably important investment in our state's future is a ridiculous example of eating one's seed corn. I will no longer vote for ANYONE who doesn't strongly support our state's public education systems. FIND ... A ... WAY - FIRST fruits, not whatever is left at the end..
I absolutely support the Teachers 100%. I can’t believe Doug Ducey says if the teacher’s strike the students are the ones that lose out. Doesn’t he understand students have been losing out for the last 10 years. It’s time something is done about it. They had no problem taking money out of education in the past and if teachers walking out on the job is what it takes then so be it.
UGGGG so there may be a Teacher walk out for pay raises Sadly I don't support raises for all teachers only a portion. And you can be mad sad or indifferent BUT here is why I say only some should get the raises. There are a large portion of the teachers at our schools pushing their political agenda on these students and I say I don't care to have anyone's political agenda pushed on to my young children. I do not push my own agenda on them and I don't appreciate the school allowing it done to anyone else's let alone mine. My girls have had their teachers say things like Trump is a bad president They can't participate in Valentine's day because they want to uncommerciallize it. And they have to learn Spanish to make their classmates who don't know English feel included. AND last but the one that pisses me off the most is tell your parents their guns will be used for killing kids and the Military kills people. So until the issues like that are addressed I say only teachers actually teaching school subjects they should be teaching then raises should be done for them as it is usually done for others based on work preformance. And as a parent having to sit extra time to have to attend a school function anymore due to the fact that I have to take extra time off because it has to be taught in both English and Spanish and therefore takes more time is a irrating fact. And reading for English speaking students is drastically shortened because they have to teach in Spanish is causing education to suffer as well.
I fully support this strike! Teachers need to be paid a good living wage so that they don’t need second and even 3rd jobs! So many teachers are forced to spend the little money they have to buy supplies that should be paid for by the tax payers. We all say that “children are the future”, but we don’t invest enough into them making for a bleak future!
Let’s put our money where our mouths more! Pay teachers more in line with the importance of what they do!!
Lastly:the children in our state deserve to not only be taught the “three R’s”. They need art, civics, government and most definitely music! The civics and government will help protect us from another reality show *president. Music and art make them well rounded! Oh, AND Critical Thinking!
Climbing down from soapbox now. Thank you!
Ed, I encourage you to go teach them. It's funny how you attempt to make it seem like teachers have it easy with all that time off. However, have you ever been in charge of managing 150 students a day for 8 hours a day? Have you spent an additional 5 hours every night grading and planning to prepare for the next day? Have you had to have you had to be constantly "on" at all times, ensuring your students are maintaining proper behavior while trying to help students learn in an environment that a lot of them don't want to be in? Have you had to write an 8 sentence paragraph describing the demeanor , behavior, and learning strategies of each of those 150 students during your holiday "break"? Have you spent your summer "break" writing and refining lesson plans for the start of the next school year? Have you done all of this while having a master's degree and making $36,000 a year? I'm never on break, I work as hard as I can every day for my students so that I can ensure that they have the best education possible. I could care less what people like you think because its apparent you live no idea what it's like to be a teacher in today's society.
Yes! As a parent of 2 in public school, I fully support the teachers. I can’t stand to hear people call them sellfish - they obviously don’t have kids in public school. So many of our teachers are leaving the state (or the profession), our schools have numerous vacancies they can’t fill. If you want a quality education for your kids, you need quality teachers, and in Arizona, we pay teachers so poorly we can’t find enough teachers to take these jobs. This is a problem that has been getting worse every year for at least 8 years, when my youngest started kindergarten. I am so supportive of these teachers and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for having the courage and energy to fight for our schools!
A 1% raise for a teacher making $40,000 is $400. Suppose a teacher works 180 days, and only eight hours each of those 180 days (Yeah, right). That is a $0.277 per hour raise. Arizona teachers have been getting less than that for more than a decade. Now, take that $0.277, give a third away for federal and state taxes, Social Security, and a nearly 12% mandated state retirement withdrawal, and you have roughly $0.18 left. Mutiply that by 9. Now you know why teachers voted YES.
I support the walk out 100% The media needs to inform the public what programs Ducey is cutting to come up with the raise and what he still isn't doing for our kids and the buildings, than mabey the ones who dont agree with teachers will understand why the teachers are still upset. I also want to know wasn't the lottery suppose to help our school??? Where is that money going???
Yes! I am a parent of two kids in public school, and I am so grateful to the teachers for getting organized and doing this for our kids! I am so tired of sendiing my kids to public schools that are so poorly funded. Why should Arizonans have to accept being at the bottom of the funding totem pole year after year after year? Do people understand that current education funding is $1billion less todaThey are fighting for every kid in public school
My grandmother was a teacher because she loved it and her student's. She didn't become a teacher to become rich. She would be ashamed of these so-called teacher's.
The teachers need to stay in the class rooms so kids can finish out the school year, especially seniors who are about to graduate from high school. Hopefully the teachers won't ruin it for seniors to graduate on time by teachers protesting all about politics. When people don't like something they think they have to run to the streets and protest so the news can broadcast it.
My grandmother was a teacher because she loved it and her student's. She didn't become a teacher to become rich. She would be ashamed of these so-called teacher's.
The legislature is responsible for this They cut $$ from education for too long If schools shut down it rests on the legislature NOT teachers
Teachers only teach 180 days a year that gives them 150 + days off a year why should we pay them to stay home and not work 5 months a year. They should only get paid during the school year no year round.
Teachers signed contracts when they were hired for the Job! What there pay would be when starting their jobs. They need to stop protesting and get back in the classes and teach our children. Don't make the children in the middle of this politics. So maybe every single other job out there people can just walk out and protest because they think they need raises all of a sudden. I'm really sick of all the protesting about everything!!!
Totally. The governor has given no information. Really why? Money is not there???
At any rate our teachers and their staff need a significant raise.
Since moving to Arizona I have felt underrepresented and walked all over as a middle school teacher. Class sizes of 36-40 students are not productive, or healthy, for the students or the teachers. Students don’t get the attention they rightfully deserve, and I, as a new teacher, can’t devote my best to them due to the fact I have to work a second job once the school day is over. There is nothing selfish about these strikes. Teachers and students and the amazing support staff we are so lucky to have all deserve it. We tell our students to stand up for themselves and what is right. Now it is our time to show them what that means.
This isn't just about teacher pay but also supporting the other aides, smaller classrooms, building safety, etc. No one needs to be fired for this strike but they need to be heard to correct the problems the education system has and those problems are only getting worse every year. I left the education system many years ago because nobody would listen or help the staff and building needs. The children have suffered and each school year it gets worse. Hopefully this sacrifice will open the eyes of the government and save public education and the students.
Yes Yes Yes I support it. I'm a parent and I fully support a strike. Teachers deserve more and I blame legislators and Doug Ducey for this, not teachers. They could have stopped this before it ever started by properly funding years ago. But they keep kicking the can down the line for someone else to deal with. Businesses are back on thier feet. Its time for us to go full in on education. We have a teacher shortage and we all should be concerned about that, yet instead we blame teachers for being "selfish"???? Yes I will be inconvenienced. But teachers deserve better with all the requirements put on them.
In favor of more education funding but come on... wait till end of school year. This is the educators being selfish and not selfless.
Illegal strike. Grounds for termination!
Yes I support the walkout we need more school funding gov duvey you want to make cuts to the disabled come on let's cut your pay, congressmen's pay and Al the overpaid officials and show your support that you willing to make changes or you can take the pay the school teachers and support staff make and see if you can live on it