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Ducey Proposes 20% Raise For Teachers By 2020; Arizonans Voice Opinions On #Redfored
By Nicole Gimpl and Victoria Bartelt

PHOENIX – Gov. Doug Ducey announced Thursday a plan to increase teacher salaries 20 percent by 2020. This fiscal year, teachers would receive a 9 percent raise followed by a 5 percent raise next year and another 5 percent by the beginning of 2020. The 20 percent raise factors in last year’s 1 percent raise for teachers.

“Arizona teachers are the biggest difference-makers in the lives of Arizona’s children, and we need to reward them for their hard work,” Ducey said in a statement. “We will never stop our commitment to improving Arizona’s public education system because when it comes to our kids, we must never stop working for them.”

Ducey’s announcement comes after weeks of pressure from the Red For Ed movement, a nationwide effort by teachers and education advocates to increase classroom funding and teacher salaries. Arizona teachers are demanding 20-percent pay raises to address the state’s education crisis and have threatened to strike if state leaders do not respond with urgency.

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