Horne: Teacher job satisfaction linked to discipline

Tom Horne cited the results of a new survey of classroom teachers who were asked why they remain while so many of their colleagues have quit.

That report found that three-fourths of returning teachers said they feel "safe and supported'' at their schools. Almost as many cited what they called a "positive and collaborative culture." And almost 74% said they have autonomy to make instructional decisions for their students.

But that same report also noted that fewer than 60% of continuing teachers said they feel supported by the administration when they deal with issues of student behavior or discipline.

And in an earlier survey, more than half the teachers who left the profession said their decisions were based on student behavior.

Horne said both reports show there is a lot to be addressed, including the perennial issue of teacher pay. But he said there is a simple solution to that discipline problem — if lawmakers would only go along.

In 2024, he proposed requiring schools to report what happens when teachers send a student to the office for discipline.

The legislation introduced on his behalf by Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, would have required the administration to actually implement some form of discipline in at least 75% of the referrals. And failure to do so could result in a school losing two rankings on its annual A-F letter grades — the letter grades that normally are based on academic performance and achievement and that schools may boast about to boost student enrollment.

It cleared the Senate but died in the House.

Kavanagh tried again earlier this year with another Horne-crafted proposal.

It said that if a teacher sent a student to the office, administrators would have to provide a written or electronic certification of what disciplinary action had been imposed.

Horne said he crafted it with input from teachers.

But Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, a former teacher and now the No. 2 Democrat in the state House, said that's not true.

"How does the Arizona Department of Education know this would solve anything if they're not engaging with teachers?'' asked the Tucson Democrat. This sort of approach doesn't deal with the underlying problem of why kids are acting out and helping teachers manage their classrooms — all of which Gutierrez said has been a factor leading to 10 years of teacher shortages.

"That's total bull****,'' Horne responded.

"Actions have to have consequences,'' he said. "When you start looking for causes, that's the soft way, the psychology, all these methods that have been total failures.''

But Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, said sending a kid to the principal's office and requiring a note saying what disciplinary action has been taken isn't an answer.

Consider, she said, a situation where a student walks into her fourth-period social studies class, throws a pencil at another kid and mouths off to her. What Garcia said she doesn't know is what else went on during the day, before whatever happened in her class.

Yes, she said, under what Horne is proposing would result in her getting a note or email saying the youngster had been given detention. But that doesn't address the issue.

"Yes, I teach eighth graders,'' Garcia said. "I know their brains are developing.''

And there are issues that arise, like a breakup with a boyfriend or a fight with a parent, that may have led to this behavior. So sending them for discipline?

"To me, that solution is trying to control kids by punishing them instead of teaching them how to swim,'' Garcia said.

Horne said he remains unconvinced.

"This is why we have anarchy in the classroom, because they started these psychological things to try to understand the reasons and all that,'' he said.

There's another perennial issue about why teachers do — or don't — stay in the profession.

The latest available figures from the National Education Association put the average teacher starting salary in Arizona at $44,860, considered No. 39 nationally. Overall average salaries of all teachers is at $64,291, or 31st in the nation.

The new survey of returning teachers found that just 38% who said they are remaining in the profession believe that the salary they get is competitive with similar positions.

And a 2024 study of those who quit the profession, more than 62% said they left for a higher salary.

Garcia said that salary can be less of a factor when people have great jobs that they enjoy, where they are treated well and respected. And she acknowledged there is a concept that people didn't go into teaching for the money.

"But we didn't go into teaching for everything that it is in 2026,'' she said, including other factors that teachers have cited, like workload and time during the workday to complete non-instructional tasks.

There have been proposals for increases.

Rep. Matt Gress crafted one in 2023 to boost teacher pay over two years by $10,000. But that failed with the price tag hitting $400 million the first year and $700 million annually after that.

Horne said there was — and is — a simple solution: Tap a special education trust fund to take out more dollars and dedicate the funds to higher teacher salaries.

Voters approved such a plan in 2026 at Proposition 123 to boost K-12 funding by about $350 million a year, though there was nothing that specifically allocated that to salaries. But that program self-destructed after a decade.

There have been efforts to enact a similar program, including one by Gress he said would provide $4,000 teacher pay raises. Gov. Hobbs had her own plan with less money for teachers but more for support staff, security and other general education expenses.

"The land trust has plenty of money,'' Horne said.

But neither plan advanced, at least in part because some Republicans sought to tie the additional dollars to putting a provision in the Arizona Constitution to guarantee the right to universal vouchers of tax dollars for students to attend private and parochial schools and for parents to homeschool their children. That was a non-starter for Hobbs and Democrats.

Horne said the bid by his fellow Republicans to link the issues was a mistake.

"I'm for vouchers,'' he said. "But that shouldn't be a reason not to tap the land trust.''