Tens of thousands of teachers in Arizona went out on strike last Friday, demanding a restoration of deep budget cuts over the past decade and pay raises. The legislature passed a new budget today that fell short of meeting their demands.
The strike may end, for fear that teachers will lose public support if they stay out longer.
”The legislation signed by Gov. Doug Ducey (R) early Thursday did not meet all the demands initially laid out by the groups coordinating the walkout, and some teachers had hoped to keep schools closed until legislators committed to a larger budget. But it was enough progress for union leaders to recommend teachers return to the classroom and prepare for another battle later in the year….
”The budget bill gives teachers a 9 percent pay raise next year, which, combined with a 1 percent raise already given, gets them halfway to the 20 percent hike they have called for. Ducey has promised that the second installment will come by 2020, though that is not guaranteed by the package he signed.
“The plan steers bulk money to districts and gives them the discretion to dole out the raises as they see fit, meaning not all teachers will receive the same percentage pay bump. An analysis done by the Arizona Republic found that a minority of districts under the plan will not receive enough money to give all their teachers 20 percent increases.
“The bill also hikes state spending on schools by $200 million per year more than Ducey originally proposed at the start of the year. Still, it comes up well short of the walkout organizers’ demand that funding be restored to 2008 levels, adjusted for inflation.”
So…the districts will decide who gets a raise. Overall funding remains far below what it was pre-2008.
Are the Koch brothers giving each other a high-5?
Will the teachers remember in November and vote out these scoundrels?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I plan to be one of the voters who will be voting out the scoundrels in Arizona over our teacher pay situation.
The union leadership is satisfied (at least to some extent) with the settlement. With this in mind, are you still planning to vote against the politicians who proffered the settlement?
Do you plan to vote out the union leadership as well?
And how to do you plan to vote on the proposition to expand ESAs?
We have to see if the Koch brothers will allow the public to vote on ESAs.
So far, they have lost in court in their efforts to block the election.
Clearly they are scared.
Charles
That is the most twisted logic I ever heard . Those politicians are the ones who cut taxes and school spending. They did not do that for the benefit of the children of Arizona or the people of Arizona , They did that to benefit their wealthier donors .
Other than arguing that perhaps the Union leaders should have taken action earlier . Something that almost any Union leader would do if they felt they had the support of the membership.What is your logic. Would you punish a Doctor for treating you for a disease. The typhoid Mary in this case is the Republican Legislature indebted to the Right wing millionaires . The disease is greed and income inequality.
The Maricopa county judge tossed the challenge out. I will give you even money that the referendum vote will take place(Prop 305).
I certainly hope the referendum takes place. The Koch brothers are now scheming to get the legislature to repeal the voucher bill and pass it again, thus forcing the parents and teachers to start the referendum process all over again, collecting 100,000 signatures, going to court, etc.
The union in Arizona is incredibly weak. It’s a right to work state.
Thank you, Kas, bring out your friends and family too!
Once again the teacher union leaders are urging teachers to settle for less and hurry back to their classrooms. If teachers are to recover from the looting of the last 20 years, the most impt election they face is voting out their local union leaders and their national union leaders, Randy of AFT and Lily of NEA. Very painful to watch statewide strike after statewide strike erupt as wildcats fostered by teachers themselves who have been abused and insulted for years, yet this momentous solidarity so hard to achieve is undermined by pusillanimous teacher union leaders eager to act like labor police who restore a destructive calm. Still waiting for teachers to stay out on strike until they get the full measure of their demands, which only a statewide strike can deliver if they ignore union leaders and stop waiting for November.
From newyorker.com: Can Arizona’s Teachers Still Consider Themselves Middle Class?
When Mitch Askew first went into teaching, he saw the profession as a way up in the world. He’s no longer so sure.
…Few would dispute that the Arizona schools are in crisis. Per-student spending has fallen fourteen per cent in the past decade, and some two thousand classrooms have no permanent instructors. Between 2010 and 2015, Arizona’s rate of teacher turnover was twenty-three per cent in traditional public schools and thirty-three per cent in charters, according to Jeanne Powers, an associate professor at Arizona State University. Flag High, where the Askews work, has had trouble recruiting and retaining talent. “I just hired two science teachers, but one backed out because of housing costs. Two years ago, I hired a woman from New York. Once she saw the cost of living, she said no,” Tony Cullen, the principal, told me. “Teaching is one of the most humble employment opportunities. It’s so selfless, it’s a giving profession. But teachers are saying, ‘I didn’t know I was going to be a pawn for the legislature.’ ”
Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, was elected in 2014, after running a campaign based on a promise to cut taxes. His critics say he’s done that—to the benefit of corporations and the state’s many childless retirees, and to the detriment of schools. “There’s a lot of public support for education,” Powers told me. “But it’s not reflected in what the state legislature is doing.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/can-arizonas-teachers-still-consider-themselves-middle-class
This fight is not over. The Kochtopus will use the raises to push for layoffs and other shrinkage.