Hi Jack,

Over the past few days, I’ve been traveling the state for The Arkansas Win with Women Summer Road Trip, and there has been *a lot* of talk about teacher pay in the state.

So before I leave Lake Village for Pine Bluff, I wanted to touch base with you because right now, Arkansas is sitting on a $1.6 *billion* dollar surplus.

The governor has called for a special session for our legislature to meet in August and discuss tax cuts. Teacher pay was supposed to be on the agenda, but he said he didn’t have enough support to keep it on the call.

Arkansas has some of the *lowest* teacher's pay in the country – and we rank 41st in education. It’s hard for many teachers to make ends meet, and Arkansans support raising teacher salaries.

We’re hearing a lot of our leaders say that they support jobs and infrastructure, but the reality is, if you want to support our workforce, you need to support adequately-funded schools.

Raising teacher and school support staff pay is an *investment* in our future.

Some are arguing that it’s just not sustainable to raise teacher pay. I would push back with, how are these tax cuts sustainable if that’s the issue?

How we use our budget shows what (or who) we care about.

As the daughter of a public school teacher, and mom of kids in public schools, I believe we need to fully fund education and give our teachers the resources they need to succeed.

Our kids and their futures depend on a school system that is equipped to support them in their learning.

You can count on me to always advocate for quality education and our schools. Next month, I’ll be paying close attention to the special session – and I hope you will too.

We have to do better.

More soon,

Kelly