Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction says she has a plan to boost teachers' salaries in the state.
Diane Douglas has been touring Arizona's schools and says the number-one complaint she always hears is teacher pay.
Douglas is now hoping to extend the Prop 301 sales tax that will expire soon. Right now it's at 1/6th of a cent. Douglas wants to add 1/4th of a penny. That extra money would go to salaries and would equal about $5,000 per teacher.
Douglas says she's not a fan of raising sales tax but she's utilizing the structure that's already in place to help teachers. The Arizona Education Association says the plan is good on the surface but a teacher's salary is just one issue.
"We have to get a handle of class size," says Joe Thomas, the president of AEA. "We have the second largest class size in the nation."
Douglas says to get the extra money to the teachers the public will have to vote.
