Arizona’s teachers have now gone on strike, and many schools are closed throughout the state due to a lack of staff.

At this point, no one really knows how long the teacher walkout will last or how the strike will end. If similar strikes in other states — West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and now Colorado, which also started Thursday, April 26 — serve as any guide, we can perhaps expect maybe nine to 10 school days over the next two weeks.

Individual districts will have to determine whether they have enough staff to stay open while the walkout continues and teachers and parents protest at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix.

Similar to snow days or other school closures, students and teachers will have to make up missed days at the end of the school year, meaning for every day a school is closed, a day will be added to the end of the school calendar, pushing back when schools let out for summer break.

As these makeup days are announced by Verde Valley school districts, we will inform our readers so parents and their employers can make appropriate plans.

To prevent undue hassle to graduating seniors, many who may have college, employment, internship or military obligations shortly after their expected gradu­ation date, teachers at many high schools in Arizona have agreed with their administrators to limit their time away from classes so that seniors can graduate sooner rather than later and move onto the first stage of their adult life without too much of a delay.

According to an NPR/Ipsos poll released Thursday, April 26, only 26 percent believe public school teachers are paid fairly with 21 percent of Democrats, 36 percent of Republicans and 23 percent of indepen­dents agreeing with the statement.

According to the same poll, 75 percent of Americans believe public school teachers have the right to strike. The numbers also stretch across the aisle with 87 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of independents agreeing with the statement.

These numbers are reminiscent of those regarding congressional approval ratings. According to a 2017 Gallup poll, only 19 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, yet 46 percent approve of their own member of Congress — there is a collective agreement on the theoretical that doesn’t quite trans­late when it comes to the proximate.

The majority agreement that teachers are underpaid and that teachers have the right to strike doesn’t trans­late into concrete ideas on how to better pay teachers, nor what’s best for their own kids out of school when teachers strike and schools close. No matter what happens, the strike may also harm schools seeking budget overrides later this year when parents take out their recent frustration on local districts.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Phoenix say Gov. Doug Ducey’s plan to give teachers a 20 percent raise by 2020 — which was released with little more than hour’s notice to lawmakers on April 12 — is financially unsustainable beyond the next year and is based on extremely optimistic economic projections.

Opponents and even some allies point out that Ducey’s stopgap funding plan is timed for his re-election campaign, but won’t last much longer than his next term, allowing him to get teachers back to work, claim a win, then let the whole thing fall apart in the middle of his second term, when he won’t need to seek election due to term limits.

Even Arizona House Speaker J.D. Mesnard said this week that the House will not pass Ducey’s plan, leaving it dead in the water.

Teachers want more but the state says it won’t budge and lawmakers can hold out longer than poorly paid teachers.

Meanwhile, churches, synagogues, nonprofits, municipalities, clubs and parents are working on options to take care of kids who are out of school during the strike. If you or your organization are offering activities, please email the details to us at editor@larsonnewspapers.com and we’ll post them on our website and Facebook page.

Christopher Fox Graham

Managing Editor