“Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything.
We don’t need little changes. We need gigantic, monumental changes.
Schools should be palaces.
Competition for the best teachers should be fierce;
they should be making six figure salaries.
Schools should be incredibly expensive for the government
and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense.”
Save Our Schools
Currently, Arizona ranks among the lowest in the country for teacher pay. Many of our best educators seek employment elsewhere while those who remain struggle to provide basic school supplies for their classrooms.
This is not sustainable.
We rely on our public schools to provide an education to our children so that they can become intelligent and productive members of society, which should be a sufficient incentive to invest in education in and of itself.
However, there are also direct economic benefits to this investment: a strong educational system helps to build a strong workforce. It does so in two ways:
Well-educated students become the workers, innovators, and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
Strong schools attract employers and workers to our state today.
To attract people to our state and retain them, a strong educational system is key. And a strong educational system doesn’t just mean higher pay for teachers (though that is important); it means an investment in facilities and those who administer and maintain those facilities.
In short, investment in public education is vital to Arizona’s continued growth. Let’s treat it that way.