News From the States

What if a plan to increase teacher pay and improve Arizona schools actually hurts our most vulnerable population — our students with special needs? I’m a mom to a child with Down syndrome. I am also an educator with nearly two decades of experience as a teacher and school administrator in both district and charter schools. While the idea of mandating schools spend 60% of their money in the classroom in order to raise teacher pay sounds great — like most people, I agree that teachers deserve more money — the reality is that more state control over our local budgets is not the answer. While Proposition 320 would impose that mandate, it would not offer one dollar more to school district budgets to increase teacher pay. Rather, it would mean that the state simply will expect them to adjust their budgets. And how would they do that? By making cuts to critical components that are not “direct instruction” — things like special education services, transportation, facility maintenance, technology, nutrition services, fine arts and sports may experience budget cuts because they are not direct instruction. The most concerning of those potential cuts would be to special education