Survey: Leadership, safety top reasons Arizona teachers stay

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(The Center Square)- School leadership support and safe campuses are among the top reasons people remain teachers in Arizona, according to a new survey.

The Arizona Department of Education released a survey showing almost 77% of teachers who responded said support from school leadership and school safety are key factors in why they stay in the profession.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said the survey “confirms” what he has said about teachers needing school leadership support and a “safe workplace environment.”

If a student needs to be disciplined, Horne told The Center Square this week that schools need to support teachers when they hand out punishments.

“Actions have to have consequences and a strong leader imposes consequences,” he said.

Regarding school safety, the state Department of Education announced earlier this month that it will use $53 million in carryover funds to fill school resource officer and mental health professional positions for Fiscal Year 2027. The funds will support 560 school resource officers and 523 mental health professionals in Arizona.

Other reasons cited in the survey as to why teachers continue to work in Arizona are a sense of purpose, student relationships and having a meaningful impact.

On the other side, only 38% of educators cited pay as a reason to stay in the profession. The average pay of an Arizona teacher between FY 2024 and 2025 was $64,291, ranking 31st in America, according to the National Education Association.

“There are great school leaders in Arizona, and the response from the teachers in the survey demonstrates that fact," Horne said. "It means any school can take cues from this survey and keep more of these valued professionals in the classroom, which is badly needed."

Horne told The Center Square that Arizona has a “real serious problem” of teachers leaving the profession.

“This survey shows there are some answers that can be implemented immediately, although more effort needs to be made to raise teacher pay,” he said.

Matt Beienburg, the Goldwater Institute's director of education policy, told The Center Square by email that "Arizona public schools receive nearly 50% more funding per student today, even adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1980. Yet average teacher pay has barely budged.

"This extra funding includes a billion dollars raised through higher sales taxes that voters were told would increase teacher pay through the 'Classroom Site Fund,' for example," his statement on Thursday said. "Unfortunately, as the Arizona auditor general has reported, school districts have failed to direct these dollars to higher teacher pay and instead 'appear to be using these monies to supplant—or replace, rather than add to—other monies, a violation of [state law]."

Previously, Beienburg noted the auditor general has said if Arizona school districts "had maintained their previous level of classroom spending and added to it the CSF monies, the state-wide classroom dollar percentage would be 2.4 percentage points higher and the average teacher salary in Arizona would be about $7,500 higher.”

According to Beienburg, this is "why Arizona lawmakers recently sent a measure to voters to make school districts once again prioritize dollars for instruction and teacher pay by requiring them to dedicate at least 60% of their operational spending to classroom instruction."

In his state of education speech to the Legislature every year, Horne said he asks the Legislature to increase teacher pay.

Horne said the Legislature can elevate teacher salaries without raising taxes, citing the money available in the Arizona State Land Trust Fund.

If the Arizona Legislature does not boost teacher salaries, the state will see teachers leave the profession, the school superintendent said.

From July 2025 to November 2025, Arizona public schools saw over 1,000 teachers quit their jobs, according to a state Department of Education survey.

The Center Square reached out to the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, but did not hear back before publication time.