AZ teacher's FB post draws international attention
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AZCentral.com reported that amid a nationwide debate about teacher salaries, Elisabeth Milich, a Phoenix-area teacher, shared her salary, and her frustration, on social media by posting a photo of her pay stub on Facebook.
"This is my new pay after taking a few professional development classes," stated Milich in the post. "I actually laughed when I saw the old salary vs. the new one. I mean really, I need a college degree to make this? I paid 80,000 for a college degree, I then paid several hundred more to transfer my certification to Az."
Her salary is $35,490 per year. The median salary for Arizona elementary school teachers in 2016, adjusted for cost of living, was $42,474, a 2017 analysis (Finding & Keeping Educators for Arizona’s Classrooms) by Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy found. The median salary for high school teachers was $47,890.
Despite a 1 percent pay increase approved by the Legislature last year, and an infusion of cash from ballot measure Proposition 123, teacher pay in Arizona remains among the lowest in the nation.
WATCH: Arizona teacher posts salary on social media: 'I need a college degree to make this?'
(Running time: 6:30)
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