Big Education Ape: Arizona teacher strike: it’s not just about a raise. It’s about defending public education.

Arizona teacher strike: it’s not just about a raise. It’s about defending public education. - Vox:

Arizona teacher walkout: how 3 decades of tax cuts suffocated public schools
In seven charts.

Just in: Arizona teachers union: We don't 'trust' governor's announced deal | TheHill - http://thehill.com/node/385294

Arizona teachers are walking out Thursday in protest, after the governor and state legislature failed to meet their demands.

Republican Gov. Doug Ducey tried to avert the strike by promising a 20 percent raise over the next three years — a promise that some say is tied to overly optimistic growth projections.

But it’s important to understand why Arizona teachers aren’t just happy with a raise, and why their demands include restoring education funding to where it was a decade ago and a promise from the state lawmakers not to implement more tax cuts.

The state has some of the most poorly funded public schools in the nation — and over the past several decades, state lawmakers have systematically divested from public education. This has been the case in each of the states roiled by teacher unrest, from West Virginia to Oklahoma to Kentucky — and now Arizona.

The root of these education cuts started decades ago, when state legislators gave tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations during times of economic prosperity. The hope was that it would spur economic growth — but that growth never came. When the economy turned south, states needed to raise more revenue.

But conservative lawmakers refused to raise taxes; they just cut spending. And because education often takes up the largest portion of state budgets, schools were hit especially hard.

Help our reporting on teacher salaries

Are you a teacher who has seen your pay stagnate or go down over the years? Fill out this form.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

This trend has been a threat to public education. More affluent families can find their way to a well-funded school — but that leaves everyone else with a second-class education. It’s a betrayal of the ideal of public education.

And in Arizona, this divestment project has been decades in the making.