PHOENIX — The state’s top education official said this week that improving student discipline could increase teachers’ job satisfaction and make them less likely to leave the profession.

Superintendent Tom Horne was referring to the results of a new survey of classroom teachers, conducted during the 2025-26 school year, who were asked why they remain while so many of their colleagues have quit.

The report noted that fewer than 60% of continuing teachers said they felt supported by the administration when dealing with student behavior or discipline issues. In an earlier survey, more than half the teachers who left the profession said their decisions were based on student behavior.

Three-fourths of returning teachers added that they feel “safe and supported” at their schools. Almost as many cited what they called a “positive and collaborative culture.” And almost 74% said they have autonomy to make instructional decisions for their students.

But the new survey found that just 38% of those who said they are remaining in the profession believe their salary is competitive with similar positions.

According to the National Education Association, the average teacher starting salary in Arizona is $44,860, or No. 39 nationally. Overall average salaries of all teachers are at $64,291, or 31st in the nation.

Horne said on Wednesday that both reports show there is a lot to be addressed, including the perennial issue of teacher pay. But he argues that there is a simple solution to part of the morale problem — if lawmakers would only go along.

Legislation introduced on his behalf by Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, would have required a school’s administration to implement some form of discipline in at least 75% of disciplinary office referrals.

Failure to do so could have resulted in a school losing two rankings on its annual A-F letter grades — grades typically based on academic performance and achievement and used by many schools to boost student enrollment.

It cleared the Senate but died in the House. Kavanagh tried earlier this year again with another Horne-crafted proposal.

It stated that if a teacher sent a student to the office, administrators would have to provide a written or electronic certification of the disciplinary action imposed. Horne said he crafted it with input from teachers. 

But Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, a former teacher and now the No. 2 Democrat in the state House, said that’s not true.

“How does the Arizona Department of Education know this would solve anything if they’re not engaging with teachers?” asked the Tucson Democrat. 

More to the point, she said, this sort of approach doesn’t address the underlying problem of why kids are acting out and how to help teachers manage their classrooms — all of which, Gutierrez said, have been factors contributing to 10 years of teacher shortages.

Horne disagreed.

“Actions have to have consequences,” he said. “When you start looking for causes, that’s the soft way, the psychology, all these methods that have been total failures.”

Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, said requiring a note isn’t the answer.

Consider, she said, a situation in which a student walks into her fourth-period social studies class, throws a pencil at another kid, and mouths off to her. What Garcia said she doesn’t know is what else went on during the day, before whatever happened in her class.

She said that what Horne is proposing would result in her receiving a note or an email stating that the youngster had been given detention. But that doesn’t address the issue.

“I teach eighth graders,” Garcia said. “I know their brains are developing.”

Horne said he remains unconvinced.

“This is why we have anarchy in the classroom because they started these psychological things to try to understand the reasons and all that,” he said.