Arizona teachers face difficult decisions about careers due to low pay

PHOENIX — Study after study has shown that low pay is the primary reason teachers are leaving the profession in Arizona, which has been dealing with a shortage of educators for years.

Arizona teachers make an average of $62,714 a year, ranking 29th in the nation, according to the National Education Association. That comes out to $4,000 below the state’s minimum living wage.

While state lawmakers wrangle over ways to increase pay, teachers and other school employees find themselves facing difficult decisions about how they make a living.

Second jobs aren’t uncommon for Arizona teachers

Kelley Fisher has been employed by the Deer Valley Unified School District for 27 years, teaching kindergarten for 24 years before switching to lead the district’s education association. Now, she advocates for teachers and district employees.

Fisher said she works with the district to negotiate salary and benefits for the staff, and with the district’s override passing in the November 2025 election, she’s looking for a 5% raise.

“I currently make about $65,000 a year. This is my 27th year overall. So, while that sounds like a lot, it’s not really that much for how much work it is. I don’t make anything different than what I would make if I was in the classroom,” she said.

Fisher said many teachers in her district work additional jobs to make ends meet, something she did for years.

“Last summer was the first summer I did not work an additional job either through the district or something outside of school to help supplement my income over the summer,” she said.

According to Pew Research, 16% of public school teachers nationwide work a second job over the summer.

Former Arizona teacher explains why she left the profession

Meanwhile, many teacher are simply leaving the profession to find better-paying jobs.

For example, Jennifer Witten is a former teacher in the Florence Unified School District. She left the Arizona school system four years ago for a job creating learning materials online that paid more.

“There’s no way to get a pay raise other than like continuing years of service or you have to like get another degree or move up to principal. … I was getting physically like attacked in my classrooms that I worked in,” she said.

Witten taught special education for 18 months in Arizona after moving from South Carolina, where she taught for 10 years. She said with a master’s degree and a decade of experience, she was only making $52,000 yearly.

“When you see other people being able to do things that you just can’t afford to do because of the job that you took, [you] either have to make the decision to stay or you have to make the decision to leave. And the lifestyle that I wanted here in Arizona, I was never going to get that as a teacher,” she said.

Low school pay impacts nonteachers in Arizona, too

It’s not just teachers who are struggling to get by. Other school employees often make considerably less, even in professional positions.

Savannah Galaviz-Tranguch is a full-time librarian in the Madison School District in Phoenix. Her job is considered a “classified” role, meaning her salary is not the same as a classroom teacher. She makes $28,000 a year, with no raises over 10 years of service.

She said without her husband’s job, her career would not support her family.

“We live paycheck to paycheck, you know. We have children, we have bills and a mortgage and things like that. And so, as the economy keeps going up, you would hope that your pay would meet that need. And I’m pretty much staying the same,” she said.

On top of the low pay, Arizona teachers and other staff often end up spending their own money for classroom activities or supplies, including extra books or snacks to celebrate class accomplishments.

“We do it because we love the kids so much. We love our jobs. We love being there, and it’s hurtful to see our students go without things that they need,” Galaviz-Tranguch said.

The Phoenix librarian said the pay disparity between teachers and classified employees makes it seem like a caste system, but she believes the roles outside the classroom are just as important in the overall education system. In fact, some classified roles such as custodians and bus drivers are being cut by some districts and outsourced.

“I know a lot of districts are outsourcing their bus drivers, but when you put your child in a vehicle with somebody, you want to trust them. And when your child doesn’t get on that bus at the end of the day, you want somebody to say, ‘Hey, no, I brought your kid to school. Where is he? What happened?’” she said.

What are lawmakers doing about Arizona teacher pay?

Teacher pay will continue to be an issue in Arizona until lawmakers come up with a way to increase education funding. One possible solution would be to revive an expired funding mechanism known as Proposition 123.

Prop 123, which was approved by voters in 2016, increased the amount of money being put aside for public schools from the State Land Trust Permanent Fund from 2.5% to 6.9%. That provided schools with an additional $300 million or so per year, part of which went toward teacher salaries.

State officials and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been working on plans to increase the State Land Trust Permanent Fund’s contribution to schools for the last three years, but no agreement could be reached before it expired last summer.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, a Republican, and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs have both promoted the continuation of some form of Prop 123 as a way to increase Arizona teacher pay.

The new legislative session begins Jan. 12.

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

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