Comment on Arizona teachers will walk off job to protest salaries, funding

PHOENIX — The latest stop in the national movement seeking higher teacher pay and better education funding is Arizona, where tens of thousands of teachers have voted to walk off the job next week. They want the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey to improve on the governor’s offer of 20 percent raises by 2020. That plan, the teachers say, fails to address several of their other goals, including a restoration of state funding to 2008 levels and a pledge not to adopt any new tax cuts until per-pupil state funding reaches the national average. Arizona is one of several Republican-led states where teachers have demanded higher pay this year.