Interesting editorial on the looming Arizona teacher's strike. I'm honestly surprised the Arizona Republic printed it given their liberal slant.

With the strike planned so late in the year after the legislative session was scheduled to end and close to the end of the school year they hope to create a crisis in which they will force the state to meet all of their demands. I think that teachers and their union are going to get a rude awakening. People are pissed now that things such as proms and graduations are thrown into question. People are pissed now that they're having to take time off or incur extra expenses now that their children are not in school. People are going to be pissed at teachers rather than supportive the longer that this drags out.

https://www.azcentral.com/stor...-contract/537176002/

Boas: An Arizona teacher strike now violates the social contract

Philip Boas, opinion columnist Published 12:57 p.m. MT April 20, 2018 | Updated 8:27 a.m. MT April 21, 2018

It doesn’t take a master’s degree in human relations to understand that a teacher strike now breaches the social contract.

Noah Karvelis, one of the leading organizers behind the strike, unwittingly frames the betrayal: "We can no longer allow the status quo in this state to go unchanged.''

Well, fine.

But understand the status quo is not indifference. It isn’t the governor and the Legislature and the voters turning to teachers and telling them to go to hell.

In fact, it’s the opposite.

State is working to improve schools

The state of Arizona has just come out of the cold of the worst economic crisis of our generation, out of a jobless recovery that robbed earning power of people all across this state – not just teachers. Today the economy is robust, and Arizona voters and political leaders are working to increase the money flow to public schools.

Here’s how:

Nearly two years ago, voters approved Proposition 123, a 10-year $3.5 billion boost to public education.

That increase meant Arizona school districts saw a $341 million increase in operational spending and $200 million boost in instructional spending from fiscal year 2016 to 2017, according to the state Auditor General.

Teachers weren't shortchanged.

Since Prop. 123 passed in 2016, they have on average enjoyed a 5-percent pay raise, according to the Arizona Association of School Business Officials.

Also in 2016, voters passed every school bond measure and override in Republican-dominant Maricopa County.

More money for schools.

This year, Republican lawmakers Doug Coleman and Kate Brophy McGee led the charge to extend Proposition 301, which was scheduled to sunset in mid-2021. The governor signed the bill into law and thereby assured the continued flow of $667 million per year into the public schools for another 20 years.

Ducey proposal is substantial

As the teachers threatened to strike, Ducey stepped forward with a proposal for a permanent teacher pay increase of 20 percent over the next four years.

That’s a giant and complicated investment in the teachers of this state.

While Ducey tried to develop details on how he could achieve that without raising taxes, the teachers stopped the discussion, violated the social contract, and now plan to strike to muscle the governor, the Legislature, the voters into compliance.

They want it all:

* A 20-percent pay increase. Now!

* A billion dollars in restoration funding to 2008 levels.

* Competitive salaries for all support staff.

* A permanent salary structure that includes annual raises.

* An end to state tax cuts until Arizona per-pupil funding reaches the national average.

Ducey critics squawk and whine

There are a number of left-wing critics, eternal Ducey-haters, cheering on a teacher strike and bashing the governor no matter what he says or does.

They’re easily exposed with a single question.

Did you support Proposition 123?

If they say no, then they went against virtually all of the public-school leadership in this state who looked at Prop. 123 from all angles and decided this is what’s best for our schools, our teachers and our students.

Even Joe Thomas, the leader of the Arizona Education Association and eminence grise to #RedforEd, strongly supported Prop. 123.

Here’s what he argued at the time:

“Overall, this ballot measure will bring $3.5 billion dollars to schools over the next 10 years and confirms that Arizona will fund inflation in perpetuity, while creating a 10-year additional funding source for schools.”

Pretty good stuff.

He goes on…

“Improving our public schools and doing what’s best for our students has always been the Arizona Education Association’s goal and this is a first step in a larger education funding conversation at the state level.”

This week, Joe Thomas and the teachers shut down the conversation. They breached the social contract that requires that when people are working to help you solve your problem you don’t hit them with a sledgehammer.

We don’t do that in civilized society. When we’re all focused on the problem, we work together, despite our differences, to try to solve it.

In the past month, we’ve all gotten an education on teacher suffering. They are underpaid. They have been neglected for too long.

Teachers about to get an education

But the teachers themselves are about to get an education on the rest of Arizona, on the construction workers and the retailers and the factory workers and the accountants. They too suffered in the economic downturn. They too lost jobs, careers, prime earning years, and watched their 401ks and eventual retirements dissolve into dust.

Those damn-Ducey-if-he-does, damn-Ducey-if-he-doesn’t critics were happy to deny the public schools billions of additional dollars in revenues in 2016 so they could nurse a political grudge. Teachers and students be damned.

Those critics aren’t credible now.

They’ll rail against the governor for not doing enough for schools, but he can put his record of tangible results, of billions of dollars plowed only recently into the public-school system, up against their broken record of squawk and whine, squawk and whine.

The foolishness of this strike is written in the demands of the teachers. The billions of additional dollars coupled to permanent revenue streams point to only one solution:

A ballot measure.

You’ll need a substantial increase in the sales tax to accomplish it, and that means you’ll need voters.

Try asking them for their tax dollars after you’ve just told them you’re shutting down their public schools.

Try winning their vote when you've said, "It's my way or the highway."

You can reach Phil Boas at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com

Post it in the existing thread, please.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/6420008044