Teachers cite reasons for 'Red for Ed' movement

The Arizona Daily Sun published responses to a guest column by Coconino County teacher Chandler Jameson entitled "Teacher forced to strike in a right-to-work state."

One wrote: "This walkout has been a long time coming, and the reason we are at this tipping point is because educators have been ignored for over a decade. The fact is that since 2008 approximately $1 billion has been cut from the state’s education budget. There is a direct link between these cuts, Arizona teacher salaries, and the crisis that Arizona is currently experiencing with a crippling and growing teacher shortage.

"Here are a handful of other sobering facts compiled by the Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy in a 2017 report on the state of education in Arizona:

• Over one-third of Arizona teachers have been in the classroom for four years or less.

• Forty-two percent of Arizona teachers hired in 2013 were no longer teaching in an Arizona public school by 2016.

• Fifty-two percent of Arizona charter school teachers hired in 2013 left within three years.

• Arizona is losing more teachers each year than it is producing from Bachelor of Education programs at its three state universities.

• Median pay for Arizona’s elementary school teachers has dropped by 11 percent since 2001. For high school teachers, the decline has been 10 percent.