Thousands of teachers, supporters in Arizona, Colorado walk out for more education money
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Ricardo Cano and Kaila White discuss what you should know about the planned Arizona educator walkout and the #RedForEd movement.
PHOENIX — Tens of thousands of teachers and their supporters are rallying Thursday at state capitols in Arizona and Colorado in historic, statewide walkouts affecting more than 1.3 million students.
More than 1,000 public schools across Arizona in nearly 110 school districts and charter schools are closed in culmination of a weeks-long wave of activism among frustrated educators and school employees.
“It’s not OK that my gut reaction is to tell kids who want to be teachers that they shouldn’t,” said Katherine Reddy, an American history teacher at Westwood High School in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. She contends that state politicians need to prioritize education.
In Colorado, more than 10,000 teachers are demonstrating Thursday and Friday in Denver, using personal time to rally for more money for their classrooms. About half of the state’s 900,000 students will have shuttered schools as a result.
â–º April 25: What worries parents most about the Arizona teachers walkout
â–º April 25: Pot taxes across U.S. shore up school budgets, drug-prevention efforts
â–º April 23: Arizona’s governor puzzled on why teachers want to walk out
No large scale strike is planned as in Arizona, where the walkout is affecting more than 850,000 students.
Since Colorado lawmakers don’t have the power to raise taxes without asking voters, teachers there not expecting an immediate fix. The teachers’ union is backing a ballot initiative to raise taxes on people earning more than $150,000 a year and corporations.
Colorado teachers also are watching changes made to the state’s pension system, a rallying point for Kentucky teachers who had a series of protests earlier this month in their state capitol of Frankfort. Teachers also had strikes this year in Oklahoma, where per pupil spending last year ranked 45th in the country, and West Virginia.
â–º April 20: Arizona educators vote to strike, a first for the state
â–º April 13: Kentucky teachers rally for education money, fixes to their pensions
Arizona’s grassroots #RedForEd movement began with a peaceful demonstration in early March and spiraled into what could be a multi-day walkout intended to pressure Gov. Doug Ducey and state lawmakers to restore a decade of cuts to education.
Educators’ demands include immediate 20%Â teacher pay raises, competitive pay for support staff such as bus drivers and paraprofessionals, and restoring the $1 billion in state money for education that has been cut since the recession.
“A lot of people think all the teachers are out here for their own pay, but we are out here for funding for classroom and kids,” Candice Brownd said. She teaches second grade at Copper Trails School in Goodyear, Ariz., about 20 miles west of Phoenix.
Ducey has proposed a plan to give teachers 20% pay raises by 2020 without raising taxes. While the governor has said he is committed to making the plan a reality, most legislators don’t appear to support it.Â
A prominent TV news anchor, Kari Lake at KSAZ-TV, Phoenix, created controversy Tuesday when she tweeted that Arizona’s #RedForEd movement was a push to legalize marijuana. She deleted the tweet and apologized on the station’s 9 p.m. MST broadcast the night before the walkout but kept a Facebook post up that raised similar questions.
Tax revenue from legalizing pot is something that at least two Arizona representatives are trying to revive. Their bill that would allow people 21 and older to use the drug recreationally, but it has not advanced beyond the filing stage.
Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana use doesn’t use pot tax revenue in the classroom. Some of the $129 million in state sales taxes — $40 million — is set aside to build new schools; a few million more goes into a public school fund, where it is far less than 1% of the total needed to run public schools in Colorado. Â
Contributing: Lorraine Longhi, The Arizona Republic; Allison Sylte, Brandon Rittiman, KUSA-TV, Denver; The Associated Press. Follow Ricardo Cano on Twitter:Â @Ricardo_Cano1
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