Arizona voters will decide if schools must spend at least 60% of budget in classroom

Arizona voters will get to decide if public schools have to spend certain level of their operating budgets in the classroom each year.

If passed, the measure would require school districts with over 7,500 students and any district in Maricopa and Pinal counties to spend 60% of their budget on classroom instruction.

Republicans in the Legislature approved House Concurrent Resolution 2007 earlier this month, putting the classroom spending measure on the November ballot.

Currently, Arizona schools spend 52.1% of their budgets on classroom instruction, according to the latest report from the Arizona Auditor General. That’s the lowest percentage since tracking began in 2001. Last year, schools spent 52.6% on classroom instruction.

According to the Auditor General, the drop in classroom funding is due to more spending on student support services and facility operations.

If the measure passes, schools that are under the 60% mark would be required to raise classroom spending by 0.5% each year until they reach 60%. If there is no growth, the district would lose state funding.

Democrat calls classroom spending threshold ‘arbitrary’

Democratic state Senator Mitzi Epstein called the measure “harmful”, explaining that this would only apply to public district schools and not any private or charter school in the state. She called the 60% threshold “a completely arbitrary number.”

“If a school district spends 59%, they shouldn’t start losing their funding that goes to performance pay for teachers. That is the wrong idea,” she said.

The resolution was introduced by Rep. Matt Gress, who said the goal is to increase teacher pay.

“We have over 3,000 teacher vacancies. … And yet we’re spending more money outside of the classroom year after year after year. We have to reverse that,” he said.

Gress said this resolution is a complement rather than an alternative to potentially reviving Proposition 123. Prop 123, which expired last year and was not included in Arizona’s new state budget, would increase the amount of public education funding that comes from the State Land Trust Permanent Fund by millions of dollars.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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