Everyone who goes to BASIS has heard of the Annual Teacher Fund (ATF) which is money given by generous donors, mostly parents of BASIS students and is used to give our teachers bonuses at the end of the year for all their hard work throughout the year. But many people just ignore every call to donate to the ATF when they can but do not understand it. The main reason to donate to the ATF is to give our teachers what they deserve.
You may have heard about the RedForEd protest. RedForEd is made up of a group of teachers who are protesting their low salaries. You may think teachers don’t need higher salaries but they really do. According to an ABC news report, in the 2017 fiscal year, the average salary for a teacher in Arizona was only $48,372! While that may seem like a lot of money and a dream salary to some people, teachers deserve way more money since they work so hard to educate the next generation. Since BASIS Peoria is a charter school, the education is free. BASIS has a limited budget and can only pay so much to our wonderful teachers as their yearly salary. However, the teachers earn way less than what they deserve. Most teachers host clubs and each one is required to stay after school at least one day a week (5 day school weeks) for at least one hour to provide student support. These are among the many things the teachers at our school do, yet they earn so little. Donating even a little bit to the ATF can help our teachers get the money they rightfully deserve.
Our teachers deserve a lot more than what they earn yearly. To give our teachers what they truly deserve, the ATF was created and relies on generous donations from families. These donations are given as bonuses to our teachers and bring their yearly salary closer to what they truly deserve. Donate to the ATF and make an impact on our wonderful teachers! You will be greatly thanked for your contributions by your teachers!
Work Cited
Cortland, Jeffory. “Teacher salaries in Arizona: See how much each district pays teachers” abc15, 12 April 2018, https://www.abc15.com/news/data/teacher-salaries-in-arizona-see- how-much-each-district-pays-their-teachers. Accessed 17 November 2021
