As a conservative, the words “strike,” “union” — not in my vocabulary. Our students deserve to have a fully funded education. I did vote for Trump. I consider myself a Bible-believing Christian. I’ve always been a fan of fiscal conservatism. I’ve always voted Republican, but now I’m seeing firsthand what that gets us. The classrooms are falling apart. We have festering bathrooms. We have cockroaches. We have tattered textbooks. Teachers aren’t getting the resources that they need within the classroom. A wave of protests sweeping across the country, led by teachers who say the future of public education is at stake. Teachers and specifically public-school teachers really aren’t valued. I have to work 15 to 20 extra hours a week at McDonald’s for minimum wage. Teaching is my calling. I love teaching music to children. That’s who I am. And people say, if you don’t like the money, go do something else. I can’t. I’m 53 years old. I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I know that I will have to work until the day I die. I won’t be able to afford to ever be retired. Because of the way that the state has chosen to fund education for the last 15 years, it’s simply made it untenable for me to stay. I’m not leaving teaching. I am leaving the state because of these issues. I don’t believe it’s going to get fixed. I just don’t. We are 43rd across the nation in teacher salary. This is why we’re going to restore additional assistance. I’m not bragging on 43rd. I’m just saying we’re not last. So we’re not just striking for a higher salary. We’re striking for resources for our classrooms and for our students. We are at the bottom of the pile for the states. We’ve seen teachers walking out or striking in West Virginia, in Oklahoma and some other states successfully. And we realized that we were worse off than some of those states were, and it just grew like wildfire. Teachers are riding a growing wave of anger over deep education cuts made by Republican- led legislatures. [chanting] The teacher protests have been described by some as a red-state revolt. I’ve said I’m on the side of the teachers, and I’ve been listening, and we’ve been working. This will result in a net pay increase of 20 percent by the beginning of school year 2020. So, on the surface, that sounds amazing. It won’t help substitutes, it won’t help our aides. It won’t help our nurses, our front staff. It comes out of funds that go to veterans, people in our population who are disabled and on Medicaid, colleges and universities in our state. I voted for Governor Ducey and I was really hopeful. And now, honestly, I just feel betrayed. How can you say you’re pro-life, and pro-family, and pro-middle class? Even as a conservative, I think it’s only fiscally responsible to increase a tax to fund public education. Oh my gosh. Did I just say it out loud? I do. I support a tax. I will tell you this right now, if you are a Republican politician, you better get behind education. I’ve been on my feet for five hours, waiting on people, sweeping, mopping. I probably won’t get to bed until 12:30 or 1 o’clock tonight. And then I’ve got to be back up at 6 or 6:30 tomorrow morning. Good night.