Arizona
Arizona Republican lawmaker proposes $10,000 teacher pay raise
PHOENIX — An Arizona Republican lawmaker is seeking to resolve the state’s ongoing instructor scarcity with a $10,000 pay elevate, however opponents fear this strategy isn’t sustainable.
State Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, instructed KTAR Information 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Present final week he believes not sufficient cash is moving into lecturers’ pockets.
He needs to alter that with HB 2800. His invoice would part in a $10,000 elevate for lecturers by 2025 via the “Pay Academics First Fund.”
“This plan would put 100% of these {dollars} into the classroom,” Gress mentioned.
This comes as the most recent survey by the Arizona Faculty Personnel Directors Affiliation (ASPAA) reveals the state’s Okay-12 public faculties proceed struggling to retain and rent new lecturers.
In accordance with the survey of 194 college districts and constitution faculties that participated, 25% of instructor positions remained open in January.
“The newest information is definitely worrisome,” mentioned ASPAA President Alexis Wilson.
She added her group is “very involved” to see there was little or no progress made since her group began monitoring instructor vacancies seven years in the past, regardless of current instructor pay raises.
Wilson mentioned whereas she thinks elevating instructor pay is without doubt one of the finest methods to draw and retain lecturers, she doesn’t help HB 2800.
Her considerations stem from the invoice coming with a $700 million price ticket that lawmakers must approve yearly. In any other case, the pay raises for lecturers disappear.
“I feel something that the Legislature is making an attempt to do to extend salaries needs to be sustainable,” Wilson mentioned.
Different opponents fear the invoice leaves out pay raises for help workers, together with bus drivers, nurses and librarians. Additionally they fear the extra funding would push faculties over the Mixture Expenditure Restrict, which caps how a lot college districts can spend yearly.
Gress pushed again towards the opposition, saying his invoice presents “a plan that I feel strikes the bar in a big course on instructor pay.”
HB 2800 handed out of the Home Appropriations Committee final week principally alongside social gathering strains, with one Democratic lawmaker becoming a member of Republicans in help of the invoice.