Phoenix AZ (September 25, 2018) – The Arizona Community Foundation partnered with Rodel Foundation of Arizona and the Ellis Center for Educational Excellence to commission a new report that shares the facts about public education funding in Arizona. The report Arizona State Funding Project: Addressing the Teacher Labor Market Challenge was conducted by Education Resource Strategies (ERS). ERS is a national nonprofit that collaborates with district, school, and state leaders to transform how they use resources so that every school prepares every child fortomorrow.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Arizona teacher labor market and the factors that have weakened it over the years. The data are intended to provide context on the current state of Arizona’s public education system, identify the challenges that we collectively face when considering opportunities for improvement, and start a conversation about potential solutions among community leaders, businesses, agencies and organizations.
“Arizona’s teacher labor market broke under the weight of leaders who, for decades, failed to confront the brutal facts about funding public education in order to build long-term, sustainable solutions that could have supported teachers and schools,” said Steve Seleznow, ACF President & CEO. “We need to recognize where we have fallen short, put an end to our history of solving education problems using quick fixes and episodic ballot measures, and develop long-term solutions and strategic approaches to school finance.”
Arizona State Funding Project: Addressing the Teacher Labor Market Challenge is now available in its entirety at www.azfoundation.org/
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I want to tell you about my personal experience in the public school system in Arizona. I retired from Mesa Public Schools 2 years ago, after 18 years in MPS. Even though I only had 2 more years to before I reached a multiplier in the retirement plan … I just could not bear another year, let alone two. Prior to those 18 years I had 22 more years of experience working in private and charter schools … so I am not new to this business. There’s many, many things to know about why teacher’s are leaving the labor market, but I will restrict myself to the one that I think is the most outrageous.
It was probably about 5 years ago that a new salary scale was adopted in Mesa Public Schools. Later I came to understand that it was not just MPS, but other districts as well. I don’t really know the scope of this thing that happened. The new salary scale removed any possibility for salary increase for years of experience!!! The only way to earn a salary increase was to spend thousands of dollars on increasing your education to another degree. And when you’re already in a low paying profession, where do you come up with thousands of more dollars for your own education? When you’re already living from hand to mouth supporting your family? When the increase you will earn still won’t take you out of the “living from hand to mouth” situation? When it will take you many, many years to earn back the investment for that education? To pay back your school loans? What other profession does not acknowledge years of experience? I know several teachers in my own school at the time that left the teaching profession right away when that salary scale was introduced.
Loved the kids. Loved the teaching. Loved the teaching community. But it just doesn’t pay to be a teacher in Arizona.