Arizona Agenda calls Prop 320, the 60% school spending measure Gress helped design, misleading
Based on reporting by Jessica Votipka for Arizona Agenda, published October 2, 2026.
The Arizona Agenda calls Proposition 320, a school spending measure on the November ballot, misleading.
If it passes, districts with at least 7,500 students, or in counties of 500,000 or more, must devote at least 60% of operational spending to direct instruction. Charter schools are exempt. Republican lawmakers sent it straight to voters, which the Agenda says let them bypass Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who would have vetoed it as a bill.
Republican lawmakers say the goal is higher pay for teachers. Republican Rep. Matt Gress, one of the measure's architects, told the Arizona Republic, "we're going to see higher teacher wages and we're going to see more resources for the classroom." The Agenda notes that the measure's text never mentions teachers or their pay.
Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman, another architect, defended exempting charters when Democratic Sen. Mitzi Epstein pressed him at a spring hearing. He called them a market-based choice for parents, while district schools answer directly to the Legislature. He also said small districts were not meant to bear the same burden, though the Agenda says those in big counties would still be covered, and he advised colleagues to cut administrative costs first.
The Agenda says backers did not respond when asked where the 60% figure came from.
Districts that miss the mark would forfeit a quarter of their Classroom Site Fund dollars, then more each year, though the state schools superintendent could grant limited waivers. The auditor general, which would define key terms, plans to use federal definitions. Under those, support staff such as social workers and school resource officers are not classroom spending, according to Paul Tighe of the Arizona School Administrators, leaving those jobs open to cuts.
Marisol Garcia, who leads the Arizona Education Association, said nothing in the proposition guarantees teacher raises.