- Arizona Education Association
- Arizona Educators United
- Arizona Parents & Allies United
- Save Our Schools Arizona
The Arizona Education Association is a grassroots organization and labor union that advocates for students, staff, and teachers in Arizona. The organization began in 1892 when a group of educators fought for banning the use of textbooks that were 14 years old. Overall, their work is to fight for the improvement and quality of education for all students, staff, and educators (AEA). Also, part of the work the AEA organization tries to do is to create legislation that protects funding for public education from grades through K-12. After the Red for Ed movement in West Virginia had demonstrated success in getting their demands met by going on strike, the president of AEA, Joe Thomas, decided to take this to Twitter, and see how educators in Arizona would feel like mobilizing in hopes to receive better funding for education (Karvelis, 2020). Then by reaching out to everyone in Arizona this way, many individuals felt the same way and decided to join the cause like they had done in West Virginia. This eventually led to smaller union groups on Facebook working towards the same goal where educators, parents, and allies did all their organizing. These Facebook groups are known as Arizona Educators United (AEU) and Arizona Parents & Allies United.
The Arizona Educators United group was created by Noah Karvelis and other group members (Rebecca Garelli, Derek Harris, and Dylan Wegela), all of whom are teachers, after having met in the comment section of another Facebook group for teachers. This organization became essential to organizing at a broader level within the state, but most importantly at a smaller level. Then with more than 52,000 educators and supporters, information about organizing is shared through this Facebook page making it easier to communicate. This group not only served as a purpose to organize and mobilize, but also to understand the necessity for change in the educational funding within Arizona, “It was on this page that the fundamental goals of our movement were developed as educators discussed staggeringly low wages, awful classroom conditions, a lack of teaching materials, and a desire to take action and reverse the decline of education in Arizona” (Karvelis, 2020).
Another grassroot organization that became a part of the movement was Save Our Schools Arizona. SOSArizona is a non-partisan community organization created by a group of women, which are also educators with a strong belief in quality public education, displeased with bills and legislations not being passed in order to improve the quality of education in Arizona. One bill that specifically sparked this organization was a voucher bill, which essentially was “a universal school voucher scheme, authored by out-of-state special interests, which would redirect Arizona’s tax dollars away from already underfunded public schools and into private pockets” (SOSArizona, 2020). Thus, the women behind the organization are working towards making public education stronger in Arizona. Their mission stands with three points, which are to empower, advocate, and collaborate, which they all aim to improve the public education system in Arizona while also working within the community by doing so (SOSArizona, 2020).