Arizona unites to find care for kids during teacher strike

PHOENIX — From gathering gift cards, prepping boxed lunches and opening church doors for child care, communities across Arizona are getting ready for a historic teacher walkout that could keep hundreds of thousands of students out of school indefinitely.

Working parents had a week to figure out where to send their children starting Thursday after teachers voted for an unprecedented statewide strike to push for increased education funding. While tens of thousands of educators rally this week, students will be cared for by friends, family or community organizations.

Volunteers also are busy gathering food for students who rely on free meals at school and collecting gift cards for hourly workers who won’t be paid while schools shut down.

The walkout is the climax of a teacher uprising that began weeks ago with the grass-roots #RedforEd movement. It grew from red shirts and protests to costly demands: a 20 percent raise for teachers, about $1 billion to return school funding to preGreat Recession levels and increased pay for support staff, among other things.

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey offered teachers the pay bump by 2020, but they say his plan didn’t address their other demands and are concerned, along with lawmakers, about where the money might come from.

Ducey doubled down on his plan Wednesday, telling Phoenix new station KSAZ-TV that he’s working with lawmakers from both parties. He also said he’s proposed an additional $100 million for K-12 education that schools can use to address other demands.