Page 29 - The Edge - Back to School 2017

ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES CONTRIBUTING ARTICLE

BY ANDREW NICLA

Recruiting public school teachers in

Arizona a tough sell

Interviewing for a job
can be a nerve wracking
experience for most people,
but for Deanna Maxwell,
she felt a sense of mutual
desperation.
Maxwell, a recent college
graduate, was interviewing
for teaching positions in a
variety of school districts
across Arizona, a state that
has experienced a massive
teacher shortage in recent
years.
Ten minutes after her
interview with Bogle Junior
High Principal Susan Avey,
the job was hers.
“You’re kind of
interviewing them, too,
because they need you as PHOTO BY ANDREW NICLA/ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES
much as you need them right
now,” Maxwell said.
Arizona State University’s
Morrison Institute for Public
Policy released a report in
May showing more teachers Deanna Maxwell, 22, in her classroom at Bogle Junior High in Chandler. Maxwell is one of four rst-year teachers joining
are leaving the field or the school and among the thousands of newcomers entering the profession while thousands more continue to ee.
retiring early, citing low pay,
increased workload, lack of support from administration and One solution proposed by education advocates is to pay
a lack of passion for the profession. According to the report, 42 teachers more, and although pay may be the largest factor for
percent of Arizona teachers hired in 2013 le the eld in three why fewer young people are entering the profession, the reasons
years. for a dwindling teacher workforce are numerous and subtle.
Maxwell said pay did a ect her decision of choosing to work
in the Chandler Uni ed School District. If she were to teach in
Gilbert or Mesa, she said she would have been paid about $3,000
“Maybe things will get better in the future, but less. According to the Arizona O ce of the Auditor General’s
2016 Arizona School District Spending report, Chandler pays
for now you have to accept that it sucks and do its teachers on average $52,001 – nearly $6,000 more than the
state average.
it anyway.” Ever since she was in middle school, Maxwell said she has
— Deanna Maxwell always had a passion for English and literature. Now that she
has the opportunity to make money teaching that, she said it

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