GOP bill to raise teacher pay is not serious

I’ll be honest: I’m fed up.

And if you’re an Arizona teacher, you should be too.

For years, we’ve been mocked and demeaned by Republicans in the Arizona Legislature.

Remember when Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita called us “terrorists” who hold children “hostage”? Or when Rep. John Allen said that some of us resort to getting second jobs only because we want to buy boats?

Year after year, Arizona Republicans pass massive tax cuts for the rich and corporations instead of funding our public schools. Last year, they gave the rich a tax cut worth $1.9 billion ... before they spent $600 million of our taxpayer funds subsidizing private schools for the wealthiest.

Republican legislators have threatened teachers with massive fines for teaching the truth about race and American history. They’ve tried to ban books.

One former lawmaker made $11 million in profit from treating a chain of charter schools as his personal cash cow. Others have made comments about our public schools so racist that I won’t even reprint them here.

But the worst part of it is the hypocrisy.

Every few years, members of this same political party realize that their constant attacks on public education have made them politically vulnerable. They then put together a slapdash, poorly written proposal on teacher pay – and have the gall to criticize us for failing to support it.

In 2018, faced with a looming statewide teacher walkout, Gov. Doug Ducey quickly put together an announcement that he’d be raising teacher salaries by 20% by 2020. Educators pointed out that the plan was flawed and incomplete.

Gov. Ducey and his legislative allies refused to listen. Now, five years have passed, and sure enough, when inflation is taken into account, teacher salaries have barely budged.

Republican Rep. Matt Gress is currently touting the benefits of his bill on teacher salaries. His bill is full of obvious flaws.

For one, it fails to cover the full costs to districts, who have to spend more on things like payroll taxes and pension contributions when salaries go up.

When these costs are taken into account, his proposal will actually cost districts money, necessitating layoffs or cuts to textbooks or classroom maintenance.

In addition, Gress’ proposal excludes tens of thousands of valuable educators who are vital to children’s learning, from counselors to special education paraprofessionals.

Gress’ proposal also utterly fails to deal with the underlying issues affecting public education, including the school funding cap, the draining of public funds to pay for private schools through vouchers, and the ongoing consequences of a decade-long underinvestment in our schools.

Although it’s always disappointing to see education funding proposals that fail to tackle these long-term issues, it’s especially frustrating in Gress’ case.

That’s because his proposal doesn’t set aside any permanent funding source. Unlike most education funding, it’s set up as a stand-alone, one-off disbursement to school districts.

If money ever gets tight – due to a recession, or yet another round of Republican tax cuts, or the state’s out-of-control universal voucher program – the money set aside for these raises will be the first thing on the chopping block, and districts that are unable or unwilling to adjust teacher salaries will be forced to lay off staff instead.

Representative Gress knows perfectly well that if he actually wants to give teachers permanent raises, the way to do it is through the budget process.

Gov. Katie Hobbs and legislative Democrats would be happy to work with him. Some members of Gress’ own party might even be willing to help.

But Gress isn’t interested in raising teacher pay. He’s interested in making Republicans look good.

You can’t spend years disrespecting teachers and then fool us with a press release.

When Representative Gress is ready to engage seriously on the issues, we’ll be ready to talk. Until then, we’ll be here to remind him that we see through the cheap tricks.