Prop. 320 asks voters if the state should dictate how much public schools spend in the classroom

Arizona's Proposition 320, sent to the ballot by a middle-of-the-night, party-line legislative vote, would force large school districts to raise ‘direct instructional spending’ to 60 percent or lose a quarter of their Classroom Site Fund money each year. What counts as direct instructional spending isn't specified in the law; the Auditor General would decide that later.

Republicans, including Sen. Jake Hoffman, point to a state audit showing instructional spending share fell to 52 percent even as total spending rose $300 million, and argue schools are padding non-classroom categories. Actual per-pupil instructional spending rose over that period; the percentage dipped partly because new money went to construction and capital projects.

Democrats and school advocates counter that decades of underfunding, not overspending on counselors and nurses, is the real problem, and that the penalty structure would gut support staff that local boards say students need.

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