PHOENIX - Thousands of teachers and supporters gathered at the State Capitol Wednesday, marching in a "Red for Ed" rally.
At the rally, they laid out a specific request for the governor and legislature: A 20-percent raise for teachers.
A 20-percent increase for the average teacher salary would amount to close to $8,500, bringing the total average compensation to about $50,000. So how much would that cost the entire state?
A 20-percent raise would add up to about $680 million for Arizona. How do you pay for that?
It wouldn’t be easy. For the sake of perspective, if the cost were to be shouldered by every person living in the state through some sort of tax (taxes are usually more complicated, but looking purely at the math) it would break down to about $97 per man, woman and child in one year.
Another way to look at paying for the 20-percent raise is by rolling back corporate tax cuts.
Those tax cuts, which were enacted in 2012 under Gov. Jan Brewer, will result this year in $440 million of lost revenue to the state budget, revenue that could have gone to schools.
Tax cuts under Gov. Doug Ducey have resulted in another $29 million less of revenue. There are deeper cuts planned for next year.
There has been little talk of rolling back any of those corporate handouts to divert them instead to schools.
And on Thursday, the governor held firm about staying the course.