Gov. Doug Ducey has announced a 20 percent salary increase for Arizona teachers, in addition to plans to restore recession-era cuts for the next five years. 

“Arizona teachers are the biggest difference-makers in the lives of Arizona’s children, and we need to reward them for their hard work — this plan does that through a 20 percent pay increase by school year 2020,” he said.  

Ducey aims to achieve these raises without a tax increase while maintaining Arizona’s balanced budget.

The plan will raise teachers’ pay by 9 percent by next year -- aside from the pay increase for this year -- totaling a 10 percent increase to take effect in August. An additional 5 percent increase will be implemented for the next two years to achieve the total target salary increase of 20 percent by 2020. 

The salary increase is in line with the governor’s $371 million investment in District Additional Assistance and Charter Additional Assistance, which can help improve school infrastructure, modernize curriculum, update school buses, and enhance classroom technology. For the 2019-20 school year, $100 million will be initially invested. 

“We will never stop our commitment to improving Arizona’s public education system because when it comes to our kids, we must never stop working for them,” Ducey said.