Gov. Doug Ducey: Arizona's #RedForEd school walkout 'was never about teacher pay'

Richard Ruelas | The Republic | azcentral.com

Gov. Doug Ducey said Saturday that the #RedForEd movement, which engineered a statewide walkout this spring, always had the true goal of placing an income-tax increase on the November ballot.

“For the activists, for the government union, it was never about teacher pay,” Ducey said to the Fountain Hills Republican Club.

If it were, he said, the walkout would not have happened because he announced his plan to give teachers an average 20 percent pay raise by 2020 before that six-day stoppage.

“What it was truly about,” he said, “is what will likely be on the ballot this November, which is a tax increase.”

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Ducey has spoken against the tax-increase proposal before, saying it would put the brakes on the state's economy. His comments Saturday aimed to differentiate between what he described as the activists leading the movement and the teachers who were part of it.

The grassroots #RedForEd movement, started by Arizona Educators United, enjoyed widespread public support as it advocated for more education funding.

Noah Karvelis discusses the Arizona RedForEd movement Noah Karvelis from the Arizona Educators United talks about the different ways teachers are still involved in Arizona's RedForEd movement.

Following the walkout, which ended after the Legislature passed a pay-raise plan, the group threw its support behind the Invest in Education ballot initiative that aims to raise income taxes on the wealthiest Arizonans.

Noah Karvelis, one of the organizers of Arizona Educators United, the group that started the #RedForEd movement, disputed Ducey's comment in a text message Saturday.

"It was never about a tax increase," he wrote to The Arizona Republic. "It's always been about students, teachers and Arizona's future."

RELATED: #RedForEd momentum continues toward November

Karvelis said that Arizona still has an education-funding deficit compared with 2008 levels, which spurred his group to support the tax measure.

"And we're tired of waiting for answers," he wrote. "Now, Arizonans finally have a chance at funding our schools."

What the ballot measure would do

The proposed ballot initiative, called the Invest in Education Act, would raise the income-tax rate to 8 percent on individual income above $250,000 or household income above $500,000, and to 9 percent on individual income above $500,000 or household income above $1 million.

Currently, both incomes are taxed at 4.54 percent.

For individuals earning more than $500,000 or households above $1 million, it would represent a near doubling of the rate.

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The initiative was filed in April, during the second day of the teacher walkout. It initially did not have the endorsements of either Arizona Educators United or the teachers’ union.

Both the union and the #RedForEd organizers threw their support behind the measure following the walkout. Teacher volunteers helped collect signatures for the initiative.

RELATED: Invest in Education submits 270,000 ballot signatures

More than 270,000 signatures were filed with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office on Thursday, well above the 150,642 required to make the ballot.

Backers of the initiative argue that, along with the pay-raise plan, the measure would effectively restore the $1 billion that was cut by Arizona lawmakers during the recession.

Ducey: Initiative 'modeled after California'

Ducey, in his remarks to the Fountain Hills Republican group, said the measure was “modeled after California.” He said people who see their income-taxes rise would leave the state. Many of those people, he said, are business owners.

“What I don’t want to do is push them to Nevada or Utah or Texas,” he said. “And that’s exactly what would happen if we double taxes in the state of Arizona.

"That is what the movement was all about.”

Ducey said after he announced his 20 percent pay-raise plan in April, the group's leaders "moved the goalposts."

He said his announcement took leaders by surprise and their message changed.

"They said, 'No, it's about more than teacher pay,' " he said.

The crowd — organizers said 90 people signed in for the meeting at the town's community center — applauded his remarks.

Arizona teachers list demands of state leaders Noah Karvelis and Dylan Wegela, both teachers and leaders in Arizona Educators United, list their demands during a #RedForEd rally at the Arizona state Capitol. David Wallace/azcentral.com

But #RedForEd leaders had announced their five demands in a March rally at the Capitol. Among them was a 20 percent teacher pay raise. Other demands included raises for support staff, a permanent salary structure, a restoration of funding to prerecession levels and no more tax cuts.

Ducey has differentiated between teachers and activists since the beginning of the #RedForEd movement, which started a social-media conversation among teachers.

In April, while teachers clad in red T-shirts protested outside a radio station where he was giving an on-air interview, Ducey said he would meet with teachers but not the leaders of the #RedForEd movement.

“What I don’t want to do is get into these political operatives’ political circus,” he said.

At the time, Ducey was holding to a previously announced plan to give teachers a 2 percent raise phased in over two years.

The next day, more than 100,000 teachers and supporters at schools around the state staged "walk-in" demonstrations.

The day after that, Ducey announced his "20x2020" pay-raise plan.

READ MORE: OPINION: What does #InvestInEd say about #RedForEd?

Ducey has yet to meet with the leaders of Arizona Educators United, though he met with individual teachers during the walkout.

As he left the Fountain Hills gathering, Ducey declined to directly answer whether he thought the teachers were used by the #RedForEd movement for a political end.

"I am going to continue to be on the side of the teachers," he said. "I listened to them, I heard them, and I am going to work with them."

What is the proposed education ballot measure? Reporter Ricardo Cano talks with two of the architects behind the Invest In Education Act initiative in April 2018.