opinion

Allhands: If Arizona teachers strike, here's how they should do it

Arizona teachers make less on average than the West Virginia teachers who are striking for better pay. And that has some folks asking: Should Arizona teachers do the same thing?

If they do (I'm not convinced it's the smartest tactic – yet), here's how it needs to go down:

3 ways for teachers to strike effectively

1. Walk out en masse – and stay there. Arizona’s teacher shortage is already acute, with nearly 2,000 classrooms lacking a permanent teacher. If at least a dozen teachers in each school strike, districts would have no choice but to cancel school, because there wouldn’t be enough subs to fill in. And believe you me, that would strike a fire under elected leaders’ hides to act.

A heavy, steadfast turnout also might minimize the chance that teachers would be punished for striking. If thousands of teachers walk out across the state, what are districts going to do? Fire or demote them all? And replace them with whom?

2. Make sure charter schools are equally on board. If only district schools shut down, foes will use that as a wedge to divide teachers. They’ll paint charter school employees as more dedicated to their students. And that could backfire on the district teachers who walk out. For this to work, teachers from charter and district schools must be equally represented on the picket lines.

3. Set clear goals before striking. That’s the problem with West Virginia’s strike. They say the 2 percent pay raise lawmakers passed this year isn’t enough. They say their health-care costs are too high. But what do they want? Arizona teachers should spell it out clearly before they leave their classrooms.

Is now the time to walk out? Well ...

Now, the big caveat: A strike will gain attention and maybe even spur action, but it also will effectively kill any efforts currently in the works to help teachers.

Gov. Doug Ducey's proposed $68 million for teacher salaries would surely die in the chaos. As would Rep. Doug Coleman’s bill to temporarily extend Proposition 301, an education-sales tax that expires in 2021, which would buy more time for voters to pass a new, more generous funding package.

If I was a teacher itching to strike, I’d wait to see whether House Bill 2158 moves – and if it gains any poison-pill amendments along the way. It’s better to have a Prop. 301 extension in the bag before walking out than leaving that to chance.

2 questions teachers must answer first

I also wouldn’t wait until a strike to set some clear teacher pay and funding goals.

Where do teachers want to move the bar, and how fast? It's pretty clear that no one wants Arizona teacher pay to rank last. But where do we want to go? And over what length of time? Expect More Arizona, an education advocacy group, wants to reach the national median for teacher pay in five years. Is that what teachers want?

And – most importantly – how do they propose to pay for it? A group of business leaders has proposed raising the education sales tax from 0.6 percent to 1.5 percent, but they aren't planning to ask voters until 2020. Where do teachers stand on that idea?

The groups that represent public-school educators, both charter and district, should speak with one voice on these ideas and see who rallies behind them. That'll tell us more about how a teacher strike would play out in Arizona than anything else.

Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com.

READ MORE:

Teachers union wants 20 percent raises, just like Gov. Ducey gave to staff

West Virginia strike enters fourth day, no class for 275,000 students

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