Wednesday was Education Support Professionals Day and as American Education Week continues, Arizona teachers and support staff in high-immigrant, low-income school districts are working to overcome obstacles and fight efforts threatening funding.
Arizona public school students typically rank below the rest of the country on test scores and some argued it is the result of dwindling state support.
Marisol Garcia, an eighth grade teacher in a high-immigrant Phoenix school district and president of the Arizona Education Association, said school staff often wind up providing stability for kids who do not have it outside the classroom.
"We can't pretend as if the food instability and the questions around SNAP were not impacting our classrooms, they were," Garcia observed. "Teachers will continue to ensure that kids have a safe, great learning environment every day. As crazy and unstable as it feels on the outside, we're going to try to keep it nice and calm and focused on the inside."
Arizona is one of a growing number of states to allow taxpayer dollars to be used for private education, which educators said threatens the stability of public schools.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said the Trump administration's plans to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education are having a direct effect on the country's most vulnerable students and teachers.
"Students with disabilities, our students who come from low-income families," Pringle outlined. "In particular, our students living in rural areas, where they need the federal government to provide those supports and to provide those people to assist them."
The administration said it is trying to eliminate waste from the federal budget. Education Support Professionals Day was first recognized in 1987 when the National Education Association announced it would recognize the contributions of all school support staff.