Arizona educators look to confront lawmakers on third day of walkouts
Apr 30, 2018, 4:44 PM | Updated: 10:29 pm
Teachers and supporters gather at the Arizona State Capitol on April 30, 2018 for a third day of walkouts over salaries and school funding. (KTAR Photo/Jessica Suerth)
(KTAR Photo/Jessica Suerth)
PHOENIX — Thousands of educators and supporters gathered at the Arizona Capitol on Monday for the third day of walkouts, but they were determined to do much more than show up and make noise: They wanted to speak to lawmakers.
Lines filed outside of the state Senate and House of Representatives buildings as educators donned in red hoped to confront those who were tasked with putting more money toward public education.
A group of educators even made their way up to the third floor of the Senate building, where lawmakers gathered in the gallery to hold a rules committee hearing.
There they spoke with state Sen. David Farnworth, who said he predicted that lawmakers would push through a budget bill on Thursday.
A large group of #RedForEd supporters have made their way into the Senate building and are speaking to state Sen. David Farnsworth. pic.twitter.com/h8RsF5DL8t
— Jessica Suerth (@suerthjessica) April 30, 2018
The proposed bill, he said, would be similar to a deal introduced by Gov. Doug Ducey last week.
“This bill is the result of the governor [Doug Ducey], the speaker of the House [Rep. J.D. Mesnard] and the [Senate] president [Sen. Steve Yarbrough], what they’ve come up with,” Farnworth said.
Ducey announced Friday that he, Yarbrough and Mesnard had reached a deal that would raise teacher pay by 20 percent in the next two years, an additional $100,000,000 for support staff over a five-year period and no tax increase.
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But Joe Thomas, the president of the Arizona Educators Association, and Noah Karvelis, an organizer of Arizona Educators United, rejected the so-called deal in a press release.
“We have no bill. We have no deal. The devil is in the details,” said Thomas and Karvelis. “We know that we have been down this road before. He makes promises that he can’t keep.”
Farnworth suggested that he would vote in favor of the bill.
“We have small budget meetings about once a week,” he said. “We tell them — Basically, the only way we have an influence is we tell them, ‘If you don’t put this in the budget, then I vote no.’ And I didn’t ask for anything.”
But the protests were nowhere near done: Educators were expected to gather at the Capitol on Tuesday for the fourth day of walkouts. Organizers were expected to post the official plans in a closed Facebook group sometime Monday night.
