Educators scattered across the Valley Saturday, carrying petitions to get the Invest in Education Act funding measure on the ballot in November. When they reconvened at the Capitol, they had collected over 5,500 signatures.

Joe Thomas is president of the Arizona Education Association. He said Governor Doug Ducey’s plan to increase teacher salaries by 20 percent by 2020 isn’t enough.

"You pass a budget one year at a time and so anything beyond what they put in the budget for this coming year is a rumor," Thomas said. "It’s a wish. You might as well promise every teacher a pony.”

Thomas says too many schools have year-long substitute teachers because more and more educators are leaving the state.

"We graduate plenty, but they go to other states because our salaries are so low," he said. "So we want to both support educators with good, competitive salaries, but we also want to make sure they have the resources and the technology they need to move their students as far as they can.”