State legislators committed about $300 million to teachers’ raises in the coming year.
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Schools in Arizona opened for class on Friday after lawmakers “approved 20 percent raises for teachers” and an education-funding plan in response to a six-day teacher walkout, according to the Associated Press. An “all-night legislative session” committed the state to a “9 percent raise in the fall and 5 percent in each of the next two years” for educators, bringing an end to the strike. About $300 million will be committed to teachers in the next year alone, according to the AP. “We should take pride in what we have accomplished, and in the movement that we have created together,” the Arizona Education Association and National Education Association said in a statement. Arizona is the most recent state where teachers have gone on strike for more education funding. Teachers in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma have done the same.
