Arizona lawmakers pass teacher raises, but budget falls short of teacher demands – ThinkProgress
[ad_1] Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a portion of the budget bill that helps fund teacher raises on Thursday morning, after House lawmakers debated the bill into the early morning hours. Teachers watched the session all of Wednesday night and camped out outside the Capitol building. Teachers will get an average raise of 9 percent and then 5 percent for the next two years. Teachers also won $400 million in education funding to partially make up for recession-era cuts, according to the Associated Press. Although the raises were lower than what teachers wanted, they are an improvement over the 1 percent raises Ducey originally proposed. Candles and glow sticks coming out at the AZ state capitol #RedforEd #abc15 pic.twitter.com/R53V6nTG5J — Kim Tobin (@KimABC15) May 3, 2018 Thursday is the sixth day teachers have been out of school. Although teachers said they would end the walkout on Wednesday if the budget passed, the session stretched into the night and morning, which meant...