Arizona Education Association president says $10K raise needed for teachers as task force wraps up
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The governor’s Educator Retention Task Force wrapped up its work last week when it released its final recommendations for keeping educators in Arizona.
Since its first meeting in April, the task force conducted interviews, held focus groups and surveyed thousands of current and former educators.
Republican state senator Ken Bennett attended that meeting, and talked about a proposal to raise teacher pay by $4,000. But Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, said a higher pay raise would be needed.
“The committee was very clear that we need to have a rigorous discussion about what pay should look like,” Garcia said. “The average educator’s salary across the country is $66,000. In order to hit that, we’d have to get close to a $10,000 raise.”
Creating paid parental leave for teachers also emerged as a clear priority.
“Most teachers and educators get about 11 days … [of] sick leave a year,” said Garcia. “We do not get any parental leave or any leave to help with our family, with our parents if they’re ill.”
Which Garcia said adds to the strain from a shortage of substitutes and growing class sizes.
The situation, she said, has gone beyond a crisis.
Still: “We’re hopeful that this legislative session with this hard data and this work can come up with a solution.”
Other recommendations included increased hiring, recognition from leadership and support for mental health.
