Arizona’s teacher shortage isn’t too difficult to explain

As our leaders ponder Gov. Doug Ducey’s whopping proposed four-tenths of a percent pay raise for teachers, an Arizona State University think tank says Arizona’s teacher shortage is now officially a crisis. The Morrison Institute has been studying why Arizona is losing publicschool teachers faster than it can replace them.

According to a summary of a policy report due out next month:

» 22 percent of Arizona teachers hired between 2013 and 2015 quit after a year in a public-school classroom.

» 42 percent of Arizona’s teachers hired in 2013 left the profession by 2016. Among charter-school teachers, it was 50 percent.

» 74 percent of schools surveyed reported they are short of teachers. I wonder if this could be why: » The salary paid an Arizona elementary-school teacher is the lowest in the nation. Dead last. Median pay for an elementary-school teacher in 2015 was $39,300. And that is 14 percent less, when adjusted for inflation, than that teacher made in 2001.

» Pay for high-school teachers, meanwhile, ranks 48th of 50 states. Median pay is $44,970, down 11 percent, when accounting for inflation, from what a teacher made in 2001.

Something to think about next time someone mentions how the supposedly all-powerful teachers union is running schools into the ground.

“Teacher pay and support is a proxy for how highly we think of students and their education,” said Steve Seleznow, president and CEO of the Arizona Community Foundation, one of three foundations that funded the study. “When we undervalue our educators, we under educate our children. This problem will not go away without fundamental change in the ways we support our teachers.”

The Morrison study — funded by the Arizona Community Foundation, the Helios Education Foundation and the Pike and Susan Sullivan Foundation — concluded that teachers are leaving the profession for a variety of reasons: retirement, disillusionment, low pay and a belief that they aren’t supported.

Me? I don’t see how they can say that. Our governor has proclaimed himself the “Education Governor.”

Why, just three months ago, Ducey, in his State of the State address, said he had “a new appreciation for the excellence occurring in our school system.” He attributed that success to teachers.

“I want teachers in our state to know: You make a difference,” he said. “I value your work, and it’s time we return the favor.”

Four days later, he proposed a pay raise that amounts to about $2 a week.

Three months later, he signed a universal vouchers bill that will divert more public money to private schools.

This, in a state that already spends $1,365 less, when adjusted for inflation, to educate a child than it did in 2008.

This, in a state that spends $3,360 less per student than the national average.

Me? I can’t imagine why Arizona’s teachers are bailing out of Arizona’s classrooms.