One local teacher dumpster dives for classroom supplies.
Another left his job of more than two decades to enter the classroom, inspired by his family of educators and his children.
Others are returning to school themselves, earning master’s degrees while managing a classroom of their own for the first time.
It’s what staying in the profession can require in Arizona, where teachers leave their jobs at twice the national rate.
Arizona Luminaria and Channel 13 News teamed over the last few months to examine teacher retention in Southern Arizona. And will show some solutions to the challenge over the next two weeks.
The Center for the Future of Arizona reports 7% of U.S. teachers leave their jobs every year. In Arizona, that number is double: 14%.
“I mean, we are embarrassing. It’s embarrassing,” said Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union.
A former middle school social studies teacher, Garcia now spends some of her time working in Washington D.C., as an education advocate.
“Sometimes we get on the elevator with my colleagues like, ‘Oh, you’re from Arizona.’ We’re the chemistry lab of bad ideas here in this state,” she told Arizona Luminaria. “The privatization efforts, in other words, the ESA voucher programs. We were the first, we are the worst. Hopefully we can turn those tides.”
The series
The teacher retention series is a partnership between Arizona Luminaria education reporter Shannon Conner and 13 News education reporter Isabela Lisco. The project includes 13 newsrooms from around the state, collaborating with the Arizona Local News Foundation. The collection of stories explores Arizona’s teacher retention crises through the voices of Tucson-area educators and how they navigate it with classroom preparation, professional development, and supplementing their careers with second jobs. Watch and read the complete series to hear from teachers, administrators, advocates and experts.
Higher pay could help do that, Garcia and others say. Arizona ranks 48th in elementary and secondary teacher pay, data from the Center for the Future of Arizona says. The average pay for an elementary teacher in Arizona was about $56,000 in 2025. Average elementary teacher pay in the United States was between $62,000-$64,000 in 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.
Another factor is teacher burnout rates, which are the worst in the nation among the top dozen industries, according to a Gallup survey. More than 44% of teachers said they feel burnout. Temporary solutions such as long-term substitutes and under-certified teachers are hard on students who need stability, and on the administrators and mentors who train those instructors.
Over the next two weeks, we will show you how classroom preparation, professional development, pay and benefits can be solutions to retaining educators here.
We found teachers, who, in addition to classroom instruction, also do social work. They parent their own children and their students. And they work side jobs as servers, study at night and on weekends to earn special certifications, advanced degrees and more.
In the Marana Unified School District, we talked with two generations of teachers — both heading into the classroom for the first time this fall — as they earn master’s degrees in the Arizona Teacher Residency Program.
At Desert View High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District, a chemistry teacher found a dishwasher on a sidewalk, fixed it to use in his classroom — and it signaled hope for a dual-enrollment program.
In the Tucson Unified School District, a development program takes those already in education (think counselors or teaching assistants) and molds them into teachers as they earn certification.
Over the next 10 days, we will introduce the teacher crisis through the people you may know here in Southern Arizona. They may teach your students or they may take your restaurant order or tickets at the movie theater.
Look for the series beginning Aug. 11.
Isabela Lisco is a Report for America corpsmember covering education solutions for 13 News. Her position is made possible through funding from Report for America and the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
Shannon Conner is the education solutions reporter for Arizona Luminaria supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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