PHOENIX — Dozens of Arizona educators with the Arizona Education Association met at the state Capitol Wednesday to speak out about their experiences with what they describe as the educator retention crisis.
They said that every year, thousands of experienced educators leave Arizona or the profession because of what they feel are low wages, underfunded schools, and a lack of respect.
They believe the result is the shortage of teachers and education support professionals, which in turn causes the teachers left to have to take on more students in a classroom.
As far as pay, they said some teachers take on extra jobs to afford the cost of living and health insurance, but then miss out on time with their own families.
AEA President Marisol Garcia said her time as an eighth grade teacher wasn't only physically and emotionally draining, it sometimes also felt hopeless.
"I knew it didn't matter how many hours I put into my classroom, how early I showed up, how late I stayed, how much creativity I brought to my profession, how much background I had, the knowledge I had to share with the kids," she said. "When you have 35 kids in a classroom, especially 13-year-olds or 17-year-olds, it's almost impossible to be able to spend enough time with them to make sure they're getting every single thing you're sharing with them."
Their hope Wednesday, Garcia said, is to talk to legislators and, ideally, Governor Katie Hobbs not only about teachers' concerns and struggles, but also their ideas to resolve them.
"I don't care what party they're from," Garcia said. "This is not a political issue. This is an actual policy issue that we want to be focused in on."
The group plans to meet at the Capitol at 1 p.m.
