For the past decade, the vast majority of Arizona counties have faced a teacher shortage at the beginning of the school year, and as school districts head into the summer many teachers expect more of the same. And they’re not surprised.... Read more»
Naive Photography/Flickr
Arizona teachers who were asked by the Public Insight Network why they think the state has trouble finding and keeping teachers responded with a flood of unhappy, sometimes irate answers.
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1 comment on this story
When the governor announced his 1/5 % pay raise for teachers I knew of 23 teachers that were not going to teach in Arizona any longer. Now that the dust has settled on the budget from our legislature; I know 54 teachers that are leaving teaching in Arizona.
That is anecdotal I know; we shall see at the start of this next school year if the number of empty classrooms grows. I hope the change/lowering in teaching standards will bring a few more to the profession. I hope there are a few engineers making 150K per year who are willing to teach for 30K. I hope a few of those few are able to manage a room full of 30-40 teenagers. And I hope a few of those few will be able to teach those teenagers. And I hope a few of those few will be willing to stay for the entire year; and maybe another year.
But at the start of this past year we were short 4,000 teachers. I hope that number does not grow. It makes it more difficult for the teachers still here. It makes it more difficult for all our children. It makes the future of Arizona a bit darker than it should be.
Still here,
Still teaching.