Educating American children is a difficult task. Teachers must constantly fight to win the hearts and minds of their students while keeping parents informed and standards high.

Teachers are required to stay up to date with the latest curricula and attend professional development courses while fighting a losing battle against shrinking budgets, diminishing attention, and diminishing resources.

According to a study, Arizona is struggling with a perfect storm of problems. Our state has been struggling with a dubious title for some time: Arizona isthe worst place in America for educators. Arizona ranks last when it comes to the way our education system treats teachers and school employees in our state.

READ: Arizona City named worst place to live in Arizona

Why Arizona is one of the states with the highest standards for teachers

Teachers in Arizona earn less than in almost all other states in the Union. According to a survey conducted last year by Educators for ExcellenceOnly 14% of teachers would recommend their profession to someone considering the job.

Teachers in Arizona: Overworked and underestimated

Most teachers work long hoursnot only in the classroom, but also in supervising extracurricular programs, grading papers, and developing curricula in their free time. Yet most of them struggle to make ends meet.

Read more from K101: Warning: Squatters Torment Homeowners Across Arizona

Our teachers are overworked and underappreciated. They try to balance overcrowded classrooms while managing administrative tasks and lesson planning. As materials become increasingly scarce, many teachers buy with their own money basic teaching materials.

Teachers in Arizona: A shrinking supply and increasing demand

The growing staff shortage is also affecting teachers and educators, as they are taking on a larger share of the workload. Arizona schools are constantly struggling to fill the ever-increasing number of vacant teaching positions.

At the start of the last school year, more than 82 percent of the 7,500 open teaching positions were vacant. Some were taught by long-time substitute teachers or filled by someone who did not meet basic teaching qualifications.

For teachers in Arizona, the teacher shortage continues to be a tough battle. According to a study Arizona ranked fiftieth out of fifty states; The average teacher salary is $52,157 per year. The only place with a worse rating for teacher salaries is the District of Columbia.

In Washington, DC, the annual salary for teachers is higher, but the cost of living in this area as well as other factors cause the area to fall behind Arizona on the list.

Sources: Educators for Excellence | Arizona Capitol Times | Arizona Auditor General | Business.org