Penzo mailer tries to trick academics

In a latest marketing campaign mailer for Senate District 31, Rep. Clint Penzo (R-Springdale) claims he voted to lift instructor pay in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The issue is, Penzo fails to say he voted against adding teacher pay raises to the August 2022 special legislative session, regardless of the Governor’s help for elevated pay. If Clint cares about educators, why didn’t he help raises this fall?

First, let’s check out Penzo’s declare that he raised salaries previous to this 12 months. In 2017, the bottom wage for Arkansas academics was an abysmal $31,000. That 12 months the legislature voted to up base salaries by 400 bucks to $31,400. The 2019 Basic Meeting pushed salaries as much as a slightly-less abysmal $33,800, with a further enhance of $1,100 for educators beginning in 2022. That put beginning instructor pay for the 2022 faculty 12 months at $34,900. That is $10,600 decrease than starting teacher pay in Mississippi, the place new educators be part of the workforce making $45,500 a 12 months. Clint Penzo champions his instructor pay votes, however these votes secured Arkansas’s place as one of many lowest-paying states for teachers in the country. This isn’t one thing to brag about on a marketing campaign mailer.

Second, let’s contemplate that Penzo voted against adding teacher pay raises to the August special session this year. Members within the majority occasion had been prepared to hurry up tax breaks however didn’t need educator pay raises on the decision; raises might wait till 2023, they stated. The juxtaposition of lawmakers placing tax cuts above struggling public faculty educators was obtrusive. Educators demanded raises, however solely Democrats listened, proposing laws that will increase teacher and support staff pay. However Penzo and the majority of the GOP voted in opposition to instructor pay. Penzo voted to hurry up tax cuts for the rich but ignored educators’ pleas from across the state.

Penzo is aware of he can’t be “in opposition to” instructor pay once more; it’s too dangerous of a political place, particularly for a candidate working in an open seat. However Penzo was not for our academics once they wanted it most. His mailer is deceptive and panders to a number of the hardest-working individuals within the state of Arkansas. If Clint actually cared about our educators, he would have voted to lift salaries in August. He didn’t. And Arkansas academics will not be going to neglect it.

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