Before her 7:20 a.m. arrival at Bloom Elementary School on Tucson’s east side, Rebecca Vieira wakes up, preps three boys for the day and makes breakfasts and lunches.
Her day as a P.E. teacher will last until at least 3 p.m.
And her single-mom shifts are perpetual.
After the school day, it’s home to make dinner. Then, depending on the day of the week, Vieira coaches a swim team or heads to her job at The Gaslight Theatre by 4 p.m. She’s home by 10:30 p.m. on weeknights. And by 11:30 or midnight on weekends.
As summer began last May, Vieira stood under the fans in the Gaslight — part theater, part saloon — where the audience would soon dine and enjoy a show. The five-person band rehearsed Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out.” As a manager, Vieira works about 30 hours a week at her second job.
“It’s so really tiring. I just keep going because you have to,” Vieira, 44 said. “But by the time I get in bed, my brain is still going. It takes a little while to relax. I feel like I can’t fully put my effort into anything because I’m being pulled and I really want that focus and I can’t have that. But I still try my best.”
As an elementary school teacher in her 21st year, a second and a third job are needed to support her family of four. Vieira is one of many educators who require that supplemental income. For some teachers, this solution to staying in the profession they love creates more challenges, like burnout.
Nationwide, about one in six teachers have second jobs, according to the Pew Research Center. The constant juggling — which includes class grading and planning and expert scheduling — can be part of the reason teachers leave the classroom.
In Arizona, teachers leave their schools at double the national average rate of 7%. Low pay — and the need to supplement it — is one big reason why.
“I think it’s sad and unacceptable that teachers need to have second or third jobs just to make ends meet. Arizona has continually chosen to not raise teacher pay, and that, along with a general lack of respect for the teaching profession, has caused this shortage,” said state Rep. Nancy Gutierrez who is also a former Tucson High teacher — a job she held while also working in the Legislature. “The shortage comes not from people wanting to teach, but from people knowing that they can get better paying jobs with affordable benefits and needing to do that for themselves and their families.”
During the school year, 17% of full-time public elementary and secondary school teachers work a nonschool job, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. In the summer, it was 16% in the 2020-21 school year, Pew Research says.
Those numbers are higher than that of all U.S. workers ages 20 and older. They average about 4.6% with second jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.
“If you don’t have two incomes now, teaching can’t support you,” said Vieira, who also taught third grade and kindergarten before that. “The cost of living has gone up, all of that has gone up. But our salaries have not really gone up. And if our salaries go up, then so does the cost of our benefits. So, our raise doesn’t really accommodate a raise.
“But teaching is such a passion and it’s my career that I’ve always wanted to do. So, you just find other ways to make up for it.”
80K? “Let’s try it”
The high number of educators supplementing their income is evidence teachers need higher salaries, experts and non-experts say.
What does that look like?
In 2025, the average pay for elementary school teachers in Pima County’s public and charter schools was $48,733, data from the Center for the Future of Arizona says. Maricopa County led the way with an average salary of $57,281.
The state average for that same group was $56,000, putting Arizona No. 48 nationally. That’s up from No. 49 in 2024.
By comparison, Washington State pays its elementary school teachers the most, averaging $95,600, excluding special education teachers. Oklahoma is the worst at $54,871.
About 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.
Average elementary teacher pay in the United States was between $62,000-$64,000 in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“This is an unsustainable system that we have in place. I think last year alone we lost 14% of qualified educators before the first semester of this full year,” said Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Teacher’s Association — the state’s largest teacher union.
“People ask, what would it take?” she said. “A starting salary of $80,000? Let’s try it.”
One solution could be a renewal of Proposition 123, Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says. The Proposition used the sale of state land to give more than $300 million a year to public schools. But it expired in June 2025.
“They’re badly underpaid now. And we can (raise pay) without affecting anyone’s taxes because the land trust has plenty of money,” Horne, a Republican, told Phoenix radio station KTAR earlier this month.
He wanted to designate that money to teacher salaries. But the Republican-led Legislature did not agree to renew Prop. 123 during this year’s session.
In 2023, Rep. Matt Gress crafted a bill to raise teacher pay by $10,000 over two years. The measure failed because of the cost: $400 million the first year and $700 million annually after that.
“Most of the teachers I know have had to get second jobs during the school year. Most teachers have to get jobs during the summertime as well,” Gutierrez said. “These are folks with a master’s degree and they’re having to supplement their income because Arizona has chosen not to fund public schools.”
“It’s a way to give back”
Politics is not on Eve Lescarbeau’s mind. But teacher pay is.
As a University of Arizona sophomore, she knows teaching is for her.
“I’ve just always loved kids. I’ve had a couple younger cousins that were my favorite part of family events. And then as I got older, I started working in my church’s nursery and doing summer camps and I just love working with kids,” she said, earlier this summer before her shift at The Gaslight Theatre.
“They’re so fun because they don’t fully understand the world yet. So, watching them discover different things is really fun.”
Doing a classroom observation at Bloom, Lescarbeau and Vieira connected. Neither knew they would also soon work together at the Gaslight. A glimpse of Vieira’s work ethic got Lescarbeau contemplating her future.
“Definitely a thing that’s crossed my mind a little bit is the pay because I know it’s not great,” Lescarbeau said. “So, I’ve kind of been looking around the country trying to find different states that have better pay, which would suck a little bit because my family is here. But, if I have to go somewhere, I’d have to go somewhere. I think really as long as I’m doing what I love, I’ll find a way to make it work.”
That idealism sustains students in the UA’s College of Education, Dean Regina Deil-Amen said.
“They can be inspired to think about teaching as a career and it’s something that’s satisfying,” she said. “Something that makes your life matter. It’s a way to give back, a way your life has purpose.”
“They’re underpaid”
But resolve alone will not sustain a teaching career or put food on the table.
At her second job one May evening, Vieira smoothed blue and white checked tablecloths, assessed her staff for the evening as they distributed popcorn buckets. She reflected on the start of her teaching career.
“It makes me sad because people are so passionate and with the teacher shortage, you can’t afford to live, but she is so passionate,” Vieira said of Lescarbeau. “And you want to keep them going and encourage them to do this because that’s what they need and what they want.”
When Vieira needed a part-time job, she said The Gaslight was a good fit, because of the evening hours.
Gaslight owner Tony Terry says in nearly 50 years, he estimates he’s hired at least 100 Tucson teachers.
“They’re underpaid. Way underpaid, and so they can augment their income with a job like this,” he said.
Vieira also supplements her income with her coaching. In the summer, at Indian Ridge on the east side, and during the high school swim season at Sahuaro High School.
She is one of the Tucson Unified School District employees who also coaches a varsity sport. Coaching is a second-job option for those working in school districts. In TUSD — Southern Arizona’s largest district with 88 schools — 166 of the 273 high school head coaches also work a full-time job in the district, not necessarily teaching. Head coaches make just over $3,800 per season, TUSD says.
As tiring as it is, Vieira says she likes the coaching because it keeps her around a sport she loves and she gets to coach her kids too.
The multitasking does not escape her kids’ notice.
“Her back gets tired,” 10-year-old Landon Vieira said. “It looks painful because of walking a lot.”
What else does he see?
“She’s dealing with a bunch of kids every day,” he says. “And coaches swimming. She’s really good at that.
“I am really grateful. She can help us, provide for us.”
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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