Teachers vow to return to the classroom if budget deal passes that would raise salaries and provide millions in extra funding

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

“The teachers united will never be divided!” shouted the crowd as they marched in Tucson’s annual May Day parade.

Even as Arizona’s teachers’ union leaders signal that they are prepared to return to the classroom if the state legislature passes a plan to raise salaries and increase funding, teachers in the streets of Tuscon say they feel a new sense of power.

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For years, teachers in the state say they struggled with a sense that something was wrong but didn’t know what to do about it. But after a wave of strikes across heartland America, teachers are feeling confident that they can change the debate.

“We’re teachers and we do everything that we are supposed to do. Teachers become teachers, [and] we don’t rock the boat. When people ask us to do something we do it. We’re polite, we’re not rabble-rousers,” said 57-year old Mario Garcia, a teacher at Mary Belle McCorkle elementary school in Tucson.

Now, Garcia said he was seeing a major shift.

“I see so many people that you would never expect to see at a protest. Something has changed.”

Veteran teachers said that their colleagues, once apolitical, are quickly turning into activists.

“Teachers don’t talk about these sort of things. We talk about our students every day, but we don’t [usually] talk about how we are underpaid and poorly treated. Now we do,” said 54-year-old art teacher Lisa Bradford. “It’s really exciting, because instead of being passive, as teachers have been in the past, we’re being assertive.”

It’s not just veteran teachers who are feeling the change, but younger teachers, who often leave the profession out of frustration with working conditions.

Colleen Nakanishi, a 24-year-old language arts teacher at Mansfield middle school in Tuscon, now in her third year of teaching, said that before the strike she was thinking about leaving.

“My largest class is 36 kids, and it’s just too much,” said Nakanishi. “I don’t know how people do it for 10 years or longer. I am thinking of leaving the profession because it’s so hard.”



We don’t [usually] talk about how we are underpaid and poorly treated. Now we do Lisa Bradford, Tucson teacher

Nakanishi said demand for teaching in classes of 36 kids had seemed overwhelming, but now, as she becomes involved in organizing, she feels determined to stick it out and fight for change.

She said the strike had helped her to develop new friendships with older teachers that make her more confident.

“I’m even more excited to go back now, because I feel like our family at our school has gotten close. I feel like we will be able to support each other even more now that we have gotten to know each other even better outside of school,” said Nakanishi. “I’m really excited.”

The week-long strike led to the closure of schools across 110 districts, affecting 1.1 million public school students in the state. Teachers are preparing to go back if the state passes a budget that would increase their wages by 10% next year and 20% by 2020. Arizona would also restore $371m of funding over the next five years.

As teachers prepare to end their strike in Arizona, they say they have gained something that will have a long-term impact.

“I feel a really deep bond with my co-workers now because we’ve been up to the capitol together up in Phoenix, we’ve been on strike together,” said Bradford. “I feel like we feel a new sense of unity.”