For Apollo Middle School teacher Rachel Eggebeen, voter approval of Proposition 320 could mean a room full of sweaty, smelly kids and a pay cut.
Apollo Middle School teacher Rachel Eggebeen, center-left, shares concerns about Prop 320 during a press conference Tuesday, Oct. 7, at the Pima County Historic Courthouse. She was joined by Pima County Superintendent Dustin Williams, center-right, Baboquivari school board president Juan Buendia, right, and Catalina Foothills union leader Bailey Hollingsworth, right.
Under Prop. 320, which will be on the November ballot, school districts in Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties would need to increase their spending on direct instruction by half a percentage point each year until they reach 60% beginning in the 2027-28 school year.
“Direct instruction” is not the same as broader classroom or operational spending; it doesn’t include funding for counselors, nurses, librarians, building maintenance or transportation services.
“Why are teachers like me being punished for decisions completely out of our control on a proposition where our administrators won't know the rules until after the election?” Eggebeen said at a news conference. “If Sunnyside decides to stop spending on air conditioning for my internal classroom with no windows, I want voters to remember the potential smell of seventh and eighth graders. Save us from this smelly future.”
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Eggebeen was joined by Pima County Superintendent Dustin Williams, Baboquivari school board president Juan Buendia, President and CEO of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council Ted Maxwell and more local education leaders asking voters to vote no on Prop. 320.
“I'd like to remind everyone that this morning, thousands and thousands of students woke up, got on the bus, made it to the cafeteria for food, spoke to a monitor, maybe a school resource officer ... had their entire day surrounded by a cast of champions,” Williams said. “Their jobs are now in jeopardy under Proposition 320.”
As a parent of a freshman on the autism spectrum, Williams said his son’s education and resources are on the line. Special education service providers also do not count under instructional spending.
If a school district did not comply with the requirements, the state would reduce classroom site funds by 25% each year of noncompliance.
At a September governing board meeting, Tucson Unified School District chief financial officer Ricky Hernandez said incompliance could lead to $9.7 million loss that the district wouldn’t get back.
“$11,000 for every teacher from our base pay is from the classroom site fund,” Eggebeen said of Sunnyside Unified School District. It could mean “a $3,000 pay cut the first year, a $6,000 pay cut the next year … to see an $11,000 pay cut would mean I can't pay my bills, right? I would have to look at another job.”
