A new school year is set to begin and some districts are still struggling to hire teachers.
While local districts offer signing incentives, districts from other states are also trying to recruit from the same pool, advertising for teacher positions and offering their own incentives.
Valley drivers may have noticed a few billboards popping up in the last few months from other states. The Dallas Independent School District has paid for billboards in the last school year, advertising pay from $60,000 up to $102,000.
The district says it paid for 15 billboard spaces in the last school year, trying to hire teachers from Arizona. They also said they’ve done this effort in other states, too.
The Gallup-McKinley County School District, located in New Mexico, also had some billboards in the Valley, advertising up to a $25,000 incentive. The district told ABC15 it had “many calls” from prospective employees in Arizona.
As of June 22, it hired five teachers from Arizona.
The New Mexico Public Education Department said out of nearly 1,500 applicants from January 2022 to June 2023, 260 were from Arizona.
“It’s infuriating. We have a really great teacher prep program inside of our state and a lot of these graduates are choosing to leave their home state, their community, maybe even a place where they went to high school to go to another state,” said Marisol Garcia, the president of the Arizona Education Association, of teachers leaving the state.
Katie Piehl, born and raised in Arizona, left the state in 2019 to teach in Colorado. Prior to moving, she taught in Arizona for 13 years.
She told ABC15 she left for a few reasons, including pay, weather, and political climate.
“I think I topped out in salary, maybe in like the $50,000 range before I left,” she said.
When she went to teach in Colorado, Piehl said she saw about a 30% increase in pay.
“I’d never seen a paycheck over $2,000 before and it was just incredible to see,” she said.
Recruiting for teachers has been competitive in the state and across the nation. As districts move to find innovative ways to hire and retain, the Creighton School District decided to offer a $10,000 recruitment stipend.
Ivan Carvajal, the director of human resources with the district, said the funds were allocated from federal grants and ESSER funds.
“It's only natural that we have to evolve as we raise the generations of tomorrow. We also have to bring the new professionals that are going to help us achieve this goal,” Carvajal said, adding that the district is looking into new ways to recruit millennials and Gen Z generations.
Not every district can offer the same kind of incentive, though. While Arizona districts are hiring teachers from other states, they’ve also been hiring teachers from out of the country. Garcia said districts are hiring teachers from the Philippines and India.
“It seems like it’s a shortcut than dealing with the major issue, which is not treating this profession the way it should be by paying folks, giving them great benefits and having the ability to have a house or an apartment,” Garcia said.
