Governor Doug Ducey meets with reporters in Phoenix to talk about the law suit against the minimum wage increase. December 19, 2016The Tucson Unified School District is the largest in Southern Arizona, so when top state officials talk about education, Superintendent H.T. Sanchez listens.
After Gov. Doug Ducey’s State of the State speech in Tucson Tuesday, Sanchez said he was impressed with the governor’s plans to give teachers raises and help pay for their college degrees if they commit to teaching in Arizona. He called Ducey’s plan a hopeful and promising vision.
“Hopeful in the sense of all of the support for our teachers, the teacher shortage in Arizona,” Sanchez said. “And the visionary aspect of providing not just more dollars for classrooms but an avenue for young people who want to enter the teaching profession … and graduate debt-free with jobs waiting for them was very impressive.”
Arizona has a teacher shortage. A new report from the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association showed that more than 8,000 teaching positions are currently unfilled in the state.
Sanchez said things are not that dire in TUSD but he likes Ducey’s plans for more teachers.
“If you are a kid in a classroom without a teacher it doesn’t matter if it is one teacher or 100 teachers that are short,” Sanchez said.
After the governor’s address at the Capitol on Monday, Democrats and Republicans applauded the Ducey’s education plans but questioned where the money will come from.
After the speech Tuesday, Ducey said there is no need for concern.
“We spend $42.5 billion on state government. This comes from all types of different sources. So as someone who used to be a state treasurer, I would like to see us utilize these dollars more effectively to the benefit of our citizens, our students and our teachers. And that is what you are going to see in my budget.”
The governor’s budget will be released on Friday.
Education occupied the bulk of the speech, but it was not the only topic. Ducey spoke about ways to entice and retain more businesses in Southern Arizona.
Newly elected Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy said he liked the sound of that.
“I think he hit it out of the ballpark. He is continuing on a trail that will lead to economic prosperity and development that we definitely need in Arizona in general and Pima County in particular,” said Christy.
In many ways the governor’s State of the State speech read like a wish list. Ducey now must work with state lawmakers, who have ideas of their own, to put his vision into law.
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