More than 1,000 teachers have left the classroom since July: How can we keep our teachers?

PHOENIX – More than 1,000 Arizona teachers have left the profession since July with 763 resigning before the 2025-26 school year began, according to State Superintendent Tom Horne.

This is on top of the 4,000 positions being covered by long-term substitutes or other part-time methods as well as the nearly 1,400 that are currently vacant due to Arizona’s ongoing teacher shortage.

President of the Arizona Education Association Marisol Garcia told KTAR News 92.3 FM the economy is one of the main factors in teacher’s choice to leave.

“Costs of housing have gone up, costs of groceries have gone up, costs of health insurance continue to potentially rise and they’re starting to talk about at district levels that they’re going to have to change health insurance,” Garcia said.

Horne called the issue “intolerable” in a statement and advocated for a reauthorization of Proposition 123 to include an increase to teachers’ salaries using state land trust funds.

What are other reasons Arizona teachers are leaving the classroom?

Garcia explained that the drop off began in July because of Arizona’s early school start date and added that many teachers realized the large number of students in their class or lack of benefits and decided to find another job.

She noted that recent online attacks on teachers are also a factor in the mass exodus from the classroom.

“There’s also been, unfortunately, a large public push back by the federal government talking poorly about schools, the closure of the Department of Education, the instability of funding coming from the federal government,” Garcia said. “You really don’t know day-to-day whether or not your school is going to be able to meet the needs of all your kids.”

Garcia said the first step to fixing the problem is sitting down with legislators and education officials to come up with a permanent funding system for Arizona public schools.

“We speak to a lot of teachers who consider leaving. I think the last survey we did almost a third of educators are like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to stay in this for my career, I’m considering other things,’” Garcia said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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