Top teachers call for 4 percent pay boost rather than 0.4 percent

Regional News

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Calling the governor’s salary hike proposal perhaps worse than nothing, the top teachers in Arizona want Gov. Doug Ducey to spend all of his new education dollars for a pay hike rather than spreading the cash around.

But the governor is giving the idea a chilly reception.

In a letter delivered to the governor’s office Monday on behalf of AZ Schools Now, a coalition of education interests, Michelle Doherty, the 2017 Arizoana Educational Foundation Teacher of the Year, and Christine Marsh, her 2016 counterpart, said teachers statewide could be given a 4 percent across-the-board pay hike this coming school year. By contrast, Ducey is offering just a 0.4 percent hike — less than $200 a year — though he promises similar increases until that reaches 2 percent by 2020.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Marsh said Monday after delivering the letter to Ducey staffers.

“But that’s not going to solve any issues at all,” she explained. “It’s not going to keep teachers from leaving the profession or leaving the state.”

In fact, Marsh said, the “couple of dollars a day” in Ducey’s proposal may be worse than had he not said anything about teacher salaries at all.