Arizona’s governor promises to give teachers a pay raise in effort to avert a strike

He just doesn’t know where the money will come from yet.

Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is starting to pay attention to teachers. On Thursday, he promised to give them the 20 percent raise they’ve been asking for — 10 percent next year and 10 percent more the following year. He also said he would restore $1 billion in school funding that has been cut since the recession.

“The winners today are the teachers of Arizona,” Ducey said at a press conference Thursday.

He just left out one major detail: how to pay for it.

Ducey, who is up for reelection in November, made vague references to growing state revenues and “strategic efficiencies” that would cover the cost. He said he would work with lawmakers to find the money. Arizona House Speaker J.D. Mesnard suggested an idea Thursday to pay for teacher raises by redirecting other education funding.

It was a surprising shift in tone from the governor, who has repeatedly rejected teachers’ demands for a raise and school funding. He recently called their protests “political theater.”

Teachers in Arizona are among the lowest-paid in the country, and lawmakers have cut education spending per student more than any other state since 2008 — by 36.5 percent. Meanwhile, state lawmakers have been on a tax-cutting spree, slashing taxes on a host of businesses in 2016, from insurance companies to charter plane operators. Last year, Ducey signed a bill with more tax breaks for businesses as well as a 1 percent raise for teachers.

Inspired by the strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma, teachers have been organizing rallies and “sit-ins,” and preparing for a possible strike. Their demands included a 20 percent raise for teachers over three years, a raise for school support professionals, and restoring the $1 billion in school funding cut since the recession.

So far, teachers seem skeptical of Ducey’s plan.

“It’s important to note that this is not legislation; this proposal is full of various promises that happen over a long period of time,” said Dylan Wegela, a seventh-grade teacher and one of the organizers of the Arizona Educators United grassroots coalition, in a video posted on the group’s private Facebook group. “My question to you is, do you trust the governor and the legislature? And are these promises enough?”

Noah Karvelis, a music teacher in the Phoenix area who helped launch the #RedForEd campaign, which encourages teachers and supporters to wear red every Wednesday to raise awareness about the school funding problem, urged teachers not to back down.

“It feels to me that this was essentially an attempt to stop whatever actions we may have been taking instead of a legitimate groundwork for a legitimate investment in education,” he said in the video.

Last week, Arizona Educators United said they were willing to set a date for a statewide strike, but hadn’t picked one as of Friday. About 24,000 educators have signed a petition saying they would participate in a walkout if lawmakers don’t meet their demands.