The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is planning on eliminating the director and program specialist role for Educators Rising Arizona (EdRisingAZ) and merging the organization with Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) of Arizona.

EdRisingAZ is the premier teacher recruitment organization for high school and collegiate students who want to enter the education profession with over 1,500 members in Arizona.

It lives in the same family of organizations like FFA, DECA, HOSA, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and SkillsUSA--in fact, EdRising the second oldest in the United States; you may know it as Future Teachers of America or Future Educators Association.

Arizona faces one of the worst teacher shortages in the United States, and we know from research that over 60% of teachers teach with 20 miles of where they went to high school. That means the current EdRisingAZ members are our future teacher workforce.

If we are serious about teacher recruitment, we are urging ADE to reverse its decision to eliminate the full-time director and program specialist position and to reverse its decision to merge EdRisingAZ with FCCLA.