Schools Face More Budget Pressure Under Prop. 320: No New Funding, No Guaranteed Teacher Raises, Unclear Rules 

Proposition 320 does not provide Arizona schools with a single new dollar or guarantee teachers a raise. Instead, it imposes an unclear rule on already underfunded public schools and will likely lead to teacher pay cuts, classroom cuts, and more if districts do not comply. 

Like all of us, public schools are facing growing financial pressures without the funding to keep up 

Just how we’re all experiencing higher costs for everything with income that can’t keep up, public school districts are also facing rising costs that outpace their funding.  

For years, the state budget has failed to fully fund public schools.  

In past three decades, state policymakers have only fully funded school buildings once – making it increasingly harder for schools maintain facilities over time. Similarly, schools are experiencing funding gaps for other areas like transportation and special education. 

While schools receive 2% yearly inflation funding adjustments, it has not been enough to cover faster growing costs like electricity, minimum wage increases and adjustments for staff, and diesel fuel for buses. Declining enrollment from the universal expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) have only made it harder for schools to cope with exploiting costs. 

Public schools already spend more than half their budgets on classrooms 

Despite limited and shrinking funding, schools already spend more than half of their budgets on classrooms. 

Public school budgets fund classroom supports in three categories: 

• • Instruction includes instruction staff (teachers, teachers’ aides, substitute teachers, guest lecturers), general instructional supplies (paper, pencils, etc.), instructional aids (textbooks, workbooks), field trips, athletics, cocurricular activities (band, choir, etc.) 

• • Student support includes psychologists, counselors, audiologists, speech therapists, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, social workers 

• • Instruction support includes teacher training, instruction support staff (literacy coaches, special education directors, media specialists, computer technicians, librarians, library associates), instruction-related IT services, curriculum development 

Public school budgets also fund non-classroom supports in four categories: 

• • Transportation includes transportation staff (bus drivers, bus associates, mechanics), costs for maintaining buses and transporting students to and from school and school activities 

• • Food services includes cafeteria workers, food supplies and other costs related to serving meals and snacks 

• • Plant operations includes building maintenance, operations staff (crossing guards, school resources officers (SROs), custodial, groundskeeping and security services), equipment repair, costs for heating, cooling, and lighting, property insurance 

• • Administration includes human resources, admin staff (superintendents, principals, assistant principals, school receptionists, business managers, clerical, accounting, payroll, purchasing, warehouse), administrative technology services 

All of these resources play a key role in student learning and teacher supports.  

Prop. 320 sets unclear 60% target for a third of the classroom 

Under Prop. 320, financial difficulties for 90 underfunded public schools would only worsen. Prop. 320 sets a 60% spending target for “instruction” alone – just one of three types of classroom support. This ballot referral fails to consider the importance of other classroom resources under the instruction support and student support school budget categories. 

It also gives the Auditor General full power to determine what counts under the “instruction” category. 

For the 90 school districts affected to be at 60%, they would have to cut at least $649 million, equal to 75% of funding spent on student supports, from other resources with no requirement to direct funding to teacher pay.  

Prop. 320 yearly 0.5% mandate still cuts student resources 

Even though Prop. 320 gives school districts time to reach the 60% target by 0.5% increases each year, it still harms students because it provides no extra funding to schools.  

For the 90 school districts affected, complying with Prop. 320 means cutting at least $44 million every year from other critical student supports, including school resource officers (SROs), cafeteria staff, literacy coaches, bus drivers, school counselors, and accountants.  

Prop. 320 punishes teachers if school districts don’t comply 

Prop. 320 punishes teachers in school districts that refuse to cut other vital student resources to meet the 0.5% yearly spending requirement. School districts would lose 25% of funding they receive to boost teacher salaries for each year they don’t comply - meaning schools could lose all of it after four years.  

Under Prop. 320, teachers in the 90 school districts affected would be at risk of losing about $186 million every year. This funding would be redistributed to other public and charter schools. 

There’s a better way to help our teachers and students 

If policymakers really care about students and teachers, they should fund Prop. 320’s 60% target rather than forcing cuts to critical resources.  

The 90 school districts affected would need a minimum of $1.7 billion ongoing funding to meet the  60% target without cuts to budget needs outside of “instruction.”