By Howard Fischer | Arizona Capitol Times
Key Points:
- Arizona voters may decide in November on increasing teacher pay
- Senate measure requires 60 cents of every dollar spent on instruction
- Arizona schools face a separate debate on renewing Proposition 123 funding
Arizona voters could decide in November if they want more of the money allocated for K-12 education to be spent on teacher pay.
On a party-line vote, the Senate has agreed to put a measure on the November ballot to require that 60% of every dollar spent by the bigger school districts in the state’s two most populous counties be allocated towards “direct instructional expenses,” a category which includes teacher salaries.
What makes that 60% figure significant is that the Auditor General’s Office reported last month that, on average, just 52.1 cents of every dollar end up in what is classified as instruction — the lowest figure since the report’s inception two decades ago.
