Fifty thousand people don’t come to spend the day outside the Arizona state capitol on a 100°F day without a reason. In this case, the reason was to demand increased state funding for public K-12 education – in particular, for teacher salaries and school infrastructure. I spent an afternoon at the state house in Phoenix in solidarity with our public school teachers who go above and beyond their means to provide quality education for our state’s young people. The #RedForEd movement is demanding that the governor and state legislature find a way to restore more than a billion dollars in education funding that has been cut since 2008. Teacher salaries are tens of thousands of dollars per year higher in neighboring states, classrooms may have upwards of forty or fifty students in a room, and budgets for supplies are so low that most teachers spend extensively from their own salary to furnish their classrooms. It is no wonder that recruitment has become so difficult that thousands of teaching jobs remain unfilled – and that the state no longer requires a teaching certificate to get a person into a classroom.

As someone who works in and around public schools, it is clear to me that change is needed. Students deserve better – and our collective future depends on our students’ future success. We must invest in our education system. The issue equally well affects public universities like the one I work at now. Many of our students come from within the state – and we only succeed when they also do. Our mission – promoting inclusivity and success, no matter a person’s background, and assuming responsibility for the health of our communities – obligates us to stand in solidarity. All the research and teaching we do at the university cannot stand independent from these state politics.

In the next few days, teachers will remain away from their schools, and the governor and legislature may yet come to an equitable solution for all. If you are an Arizona voter, please help by calling the governor or your state legislator – and let them know that our futures depend on change.