Arizona’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction is sounding the alarm about the state’s dwindling pool of teachers.
Earlier this month, Arizona’s school’s chief, Tom Horne, announced the results of a teacher retention survey “that shows alarming numbers pointing to a crisis in the teaching profession.”
According to the release from the Arizona Department of Education, “A survey of nearly 1,000 teachers who left the profession after 2023 shows large numbers of educators left because of lack of administrative support for classroom discipline and a desire for better pay. Teachers are leaving the profession within the first few years of teaching at an alarming rate, and there are more teachers leaving than are coming into the classroom. If this were to continue, we would ultimately end up with no teachers.”
Horne said, “This is a crisis, and it needs to be addressed immediately. In the most recent legislative session, I urged the passage of a bill that would require school leaders to support classroom teachers in discipline matters. Sadly, it did not get passed by the legislature and the crisis will not only persist but will just get worse.”
He added, “I have also consistently advocated for higher teacher pay, and yet legislative efforts have been rebuffed because of political disputes that do nothing to help improve the salaries of teachers. In short, just about any classroom teacher can tell you what they need to thrive as educators and lead students to academic excellence. Better pay and robust support from administrators on discipline are vital.”
The survey from the department collected responses from 945 Arizona teachers. Per the press release, “about 67 percent cited low pay. Nearly 64 percent agreed or strongly agreed that they left teaching because of student behavior and discipline problems. Almost 47 percent said they were dissatisfied with their administration and just over 45 percent were unhappy with working conditions.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Arizona State Superintendent Tom Horne said Tuesday that his top priority is reversing the teacher shortage in the Grand Canyon State.
Arizona is facing a serious teacher shortage with more teachers leaving than staying, he said.
“We have got to turn around the situation, bring about equilibrium, so we’re not, we’re not losing more teachers than we’re gaining,” Horne said in his speech to the House Education Committee. “We cannot continue doing that.”
Horne said teacher shortages are a “potential catastrophe” that requires immediate attention.
“Currently, we have 60,000 teachers in our classrooms. 8,000 of them are leaving each year,” Horne said. “Our educator preparation programs produce 1,900 per year that actually show up in our classrooms. 2,815 teachers also return to the classrooms. That is a net loss of about 2,300 per year. If that trend were to continue, it would eventually lead to zero teachers.”
His speech also addressed reading proficiency levels. Horne said it’s a “scandal” that some Arizona high schoolers cannot read.
“Kids go to school day after day, every day throughout the year, eight years,” he said, “and they still can’t read.”
Horne outlined sixteen initiatives to increase academic outcomes in public schools. Some of these include growing the number of school improvement teams, leadership training, paperwork reduction, school safety, using data to improve academic outcomes, and teacher development.
“We entered into an agreement with the leaders of the major companies in our state: we will provide the skilled workers,” he said. “In return, the businesses will either teach our career technical education teachers what skills to teach or will provide people to teach those skills.”
Horne said he supports legislative efforts to raise teacher salaries as well as a bill to require more district and charter administrative support for teacher discipline. Those issues were cited in a recent survey of teachers as the top two reasons for leaving the profession, Horne noted.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
On Tuesday, House Democrats attempted to kill a Republican-introduced bill to address the teacher shortage.
The bill, HB2428, would allow private universities and colleges to participate in and receive funding from the Arizona Teachers Academy (ATA). Reimbursements for academy scholarships would be capped at the average in-state tuition and fees determined by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR): currently, about $7,100. The four Democratic members of the House Education Committee opposed the bill.
The bill sponsor, State Rep. Matt Gress (R-LD04), said that there are thousands of students seeking an educational degree currently, noting approximately 3,000 qualified students at Grand Canyon University alone. Gress cited data that approximately 80 percent of these types of students go on to teach in public schools, but not necessarily in Arizona. Gress argued that they should be pulled into Arizona ones.
“It represents a state commitment to addressing our teacher workforce shortage,” said Gress.
ATA helps pay for tuition and fees for state university or community college students, with the contingency that these students commit to one year of teaching in an Arizona public school.
Over 3,300 individuals were enrolled in the ATA last year, the largest class since its creation in 2017 under former Gov. Doug Ducey. Enrollment for the past five years totaled nearly 9,300. Scholarships totaled $22.7 million, averaging $7,100 each. Gress’ proposed expansion of the ATA to private institutions may cost an additional $17 million. The ATA funds student-teachers across 16 different graduate and undergraduate programs.
The teacher shortage may soon worsen: over 20,000 teachers qualified for retirement last year, according to the Arizona State Retirement System.
Committee Democrats admitted that the state’s ongoing teacher shortage is urgent. However, they disagreed that public dollars should go into private institutions.
State Rep. Judy Schwiebert (D-LD02) said the state should prioritize public institution students over private ones. She expressed concern that expanding ATA eligibility would disrupt the current waitlist of public university students.
“I feel like our priority needs to be with our public schools that need to be held accountable, and if they’re going to be accountable we need to make sure that we’re providing the funding for them to be able to train as many teachers as they have applications for, and right now they don’t,” said Schwiebert. “We need to make it a priority to further invest in our institutions before we send any money, or if we even should send any money to a private institution that doesn’t require any accountability from the state.”
State Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-LD18) concurred, arguing that it wasn’t appropriate to use public funds for private institutions. Gutierrez said the teacher shortage wasn’t due to a lack of accessibility to programs like ATA, it was teachers enduring purportedly low pay and disrespect.
State Rep. Laura Terech (D-LD04) said she didn’t believe this bill was a long-term solution for the shortage.
“I have a fundamental problem with sending public money to private institutions,” said Terech.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
