Arizona lawmakers push to guarantee teacher raises — but support staff left out

PHOENIX — Arizona voters could have the final say on a major overhaul of how the state pays its public school teachers, under a pair of linked proposals advancing through the state legislature.

The measures, SCR 1041 and SCR 1051, would guarantee annual salary increases for eligible classroom teachers and lock the funding source into the Arizona Constitution, making it significantly harder for future lawmakers to reduce or eliminate it.

RELATED: $10,000 pay increase proposed in effort to stop Arizona teachers from quitting

Funding would come from the State Land Trust, and schools would be required to use those dollars exclusively for teacher pay. Every qualifying teacher would receive the same dollar-amount raise, and districts generally would be prohibited from cutting those salaries later unless their overall funding declines.

If approved by the legislature, the proposals would be placed before Arizona voters on the ballot.

The detail drawing the most scrutiny: the guaranteed raises would apply only to certain classroom teachers. Social workers, school counselors, instructional aides and many other support staff would not be covered under the proposals, leaving those employees to compete for funding through separate budget processes.

Supporters argue the plan is a targeted, durable solution to the state’s persistent teacher retention problem. Critics contend it creates a two-tiered workforce and ignores the broader team that keeps schools running.

“People in Arizona care deeply about public schools, want to see serious investment in public schools, and instead of being bold and thinking about a way that we can ensure this money is taken care of, what we’re seeing is just political games. It’s really unfortunate for the students of Arizona,” said Marisol Garcia, President of the Arizona Education Association, and criticized the proposals as falling short of the comprehensive investment schools need, framing the exclusions as political maneuvering rather than sound education policy.

The fault line in the debate is less about whether teachers deserve better pay and more about strategy. Supporters say stabilizing teacher compensation first is a pragmatic step toward solving one of Arizona’s most acute staffing shortages. Opponents say isolating one group of employees misrepresents how schools actually function.

This story is made possible through grant funding from the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.

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