Phoenix (AFP) - In recent months, Shivani Dalal has had to give up her favorite ramen noodles and find a second job, as soaring inflation has strained her meager teacher's salary.
Teachers in Arizona are among the United States' lowest paid, making the cost-of-living crisis even more acute for educators in this key battleground for the upcoming midterm elections.
Over the summer "I was cutting it very, very close," the 27-year-old English teacher told AFP in her Phoenix apartment.
After rent, utilities and car loan payments, she had just $400 a month to live on -- a major challenge at a time when the United States is experiencing its worst inflation in four decades.
Dalal gave up nights out at the movies, road trips through the desert and soy ramen, after seeing the price of Japanese noodles quadruple.
Since September, she has received a $300 monthly raise.But even that relief threatens to be subsumed by the explosion in prices.
While gas prices briefly fell, "now they're slowly creeping back up, so that can be a little disconcerting," she said.Her student loan payments, frozen during the pandemic, are also due to resume in 2023.
To get by, Dalal now canvasses for the Democrats after her classes are finished, earning her an extra $250 to $300 per week until the midterms -- shifts she is putting in on top of 70-hour weeks.
"I sometimes think that working as much is definitely very stressful," said Dalal, who wants to stay in teaching, but is considering a move back to California where she could live with her family.
Inflation is particularly troublesome in Arizona, where the capital city Phoenix clocked the nation's highest price surge in August -- a whopping 13 percent year-on-year.
That has placed enormous strain on educators in the southwestern US state, which ranks 44th out of 50 states in terms of teacher salary.The average pay is $52,157 per year, according to the National Education Association.
'Mental toll'
Kareem Neal, 48, has spent half his life working with disabled students, and finally managed to rent a dream apartment with a scenic view of downtown Phoenix.
Even while racking up professional awards, including his admission into the National Teachers Hall of Fame, Neal has supplemented his salary by working as a ride-share driver, nightclub bouncer, and recently as a motivational coach.
But the increase in prices over the past six months has stopped him from saving any money.In order to fulfil his dream of becoming a homeowner and saving for retirement, he is thinking of downsizing.
"It takes a mental toll...Will I ever be able to not work two jobs?" he said."Will I ever be able to slow down in my older age and start enjoying the world a bit more?"
Asked about the November 8 vote, Neal is jaded.
"I've been in Arizona for 23 years now, and since I've gotten here just about all politicians have said they're pro-public education and...teachers deserve to get paid more," he said.
Having witnessed inadequate salary rises over that time, "I don't buy it at all," he added.
At Neal's high school, some teachers have left the profession.At the start of the school year, more than a quarter of Arizona teaching positions were vacant, according to the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association.
"Many districts have been bringing teachers from places like the Philippines" as well as India, Vietnam, and other countries, said Paul Tighe, executive director of Arizona School Administrators.
'Huge relief'
In a bid to retain teachers, Northern Arizona University launched a mentoring program this summer that allows students to learn the profession in the classroom of another teacher, without spending anything upfront on their master's degree.
They earn a $15,000 scholarship their first year, then a teacher's salary, and must teach in the state for at least three years.
"If I wasn't in the program, I would probably have to take out student loans and I would probably have to pay for my own insurance," said Aisha Thomas, 25, describing the scheme as "a huge relief."
Officials running the Arizona Teacher Residency plan to take on 100 trainee teachers every year, and hope to soon offer housing to some of them.
"That would even go further to be able to help them survive the kinds of inflation that they're experiencing now," said director Victoria Theisen-Homer.
