Texas school district offers higher pay in Phoenix ads

A Texas school district has placed advertisements on Phoenix billboards in an attempt to recruit Arizona teachers to a city with higher pay.

The Fort Worth Independent School District has rented five digital billboards in Phoenix that advertise a starting teacher salary of $52,000.

School district officials say the advertisements were placed in Arizona and Oklahoma to target both new and veteran teachers following the recent protests over pay in both states.

Arizona lawmakers approved a plan to hike teacher salaries after a six-day walkout by educators shut down most schools statewide.

Officials say the Fort Worth district has up to 800 job openings. The district has about 86,000 students and more than 10,000 employees.

The billboards went live on Monday and will stay up for a month.