From the superintendent's race to classroom spending measures, Arizona voters are weighing in on a number of education-related questions this election.
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Superintendent race
As of Wednesday afternoon, Democrat Teresa Leyba Ruiz leads Republican State Treasurer Kimberly Yee in the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
"I'm just feeling really honored to have the support of Arizonans and filled with gratitude really for this opportunity to do this race," Ruiz said.
If her lead continues to hold, Ruiz said she will start with shutting down Superintendent Tom Horne’s Empower Hotline and take a hard look at the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program.
"Let's make sure to bring in a third-party audit so we really have a sense. Arizonans have the right to know what's really happening here," Ruiz said.
ABC15 reached out to Yee for comment, but has not responded yet.
Both Ruiz and Yee have laid out their plans for office in previous interviews with ABC15. Those interviews could be found here.
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School ballot measures
About two dozen districts went to voters asking for more money this election cycle, between bonds and maintenance and operations overrides.
A bond pays for buildings and equipment, safety upgrades, renovations, buses and more. An override pays for people and programs, including salaries and extracurriculars offered to students.
A majority of the measures appear to be passing, while about a handful are still too close to call.
Peoria Unified falls into the latter. The district cut millions of dollars last year after voters rejected its override measure. As of Wednesday afternoon, it appears to be passing by a small margin.
"For the override, this would allow us to come back to the spending we had and those areas we were focused on in terms of athletics, arts, special education and teacher pay," Tahlya Visintainer, interim superintendent of Peoria Unified, said about what they’d do if the override does pass.
In Saddle Mountain Unified, the situation is the opposite — both its override and bond measure are currently failing again. Superintendent Dr. Michael Winters said it’s devastating and disappointing.
"We cut an elective at every school. Class sizes went up. Some fees went up. And then the same things are going to happen again for next year. So, it's just the reality of the situation. And it's really unfortunate. And like I said, at the end of the day, our kids are going to be impacted,” Winters said.
He said that the potential rejection again showed that there is a "pretty clear message."
"A little glimmer of hope maybe is that the way the other elections turned out, maybe we can hold out that there will be some change in funding for Arizona schools," he said, referring to a potential Democrat trifecta in Arizona. "But, I can't wish for that. I got to plan for what's reality in front of us."
Proposition 320
Proposition 320 was referred to the ballot by the Republican-majority legislature, which would require large districts to spend 60% of their operational budget on direct instruction. The rule would apply to districts with at least 7,500 students or those in counties of 500,000 people or more.
Those who wanted Prop 320 to pass say more money could go to teachers. Whereas opponents of the proposition say it would take away funding for other education needs.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the proposition was failing at 51.37% compared to 48.63%
Election results will be certified in the next two weeks.
