For all that Fountain Hills is, there is so much more that it could be. Let’s start with schools.

The Arizona Auditor General report released this week cites Arizona’s mediocre status nationwide as a state for teacher salaries, mirroring the National Education Association report released earlier this year. But what really stands out is where Fountain Hills places statewide for teacher pay. If you live in Fountain Hills and are not embarrassed and ashamed by the numbers, you should be.

The report’s numbers do not lie. Fountain Hills Unified teacher salaries, at an average of

$46,613, are the lowest in Maricopa County. Statewide, out of 206 school districts, FHUSD ranked 190, with annual teacher pay almost $30,000 less than the top school district, Sentinel Elementary.

Fountain Hills residents elected local School Board members who ran in opposition to funding our FHUSD schools through a bond referendum. Residents also elected a new Town Council majority that opposed funding our schools, and that majority aligned with a political action committee that disseminated misinformation and sought to perpetuate fear all over town to help ensure that our school system was not supported.

I feel for our Fountain Hills teachers who likely do what they do because they love their profession and commit to helping today’s children become upstanding leaders of character and integrity of the future. Yet I would understand completely if they decided to move elsewhere, to a community and district where they were compensated fairly. The FHUSD Governing Board is considering a goal for the upcoming year that establishes “a long-range financial plan that includes higher teacher and staff pay, facility maintenance, and beautification…” That is a worthy consideration, as is support from the Fountain Hills community.

If you fail children, their teachers and local schools, you become a failed community.