Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is pushing back on a narrative that he was dismissive of teachers who pushed for big pay increases while he championed a budget that awarded them just a 1 percent pay hike.
The Republican governor said in an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday that he was indeed listening to teachers and committed to providing as much education funding as possible. He said new state revenue numbers that appeared in early April gave him the ability to push a much bigger teacher pay raise than initially proposed.
The result was a 9 percent average raise in the fall and a promise for 5 percent boosts in each of the coming two years.
Tens of thousands of teachers ended a six-day strike Friday after the budget passed.
