Why is this a controversial measure needed now? Uh, what brought this about, and is there organized opposition?

So this was brought about by Representative Matt Gress.

Um, he is the chair of the Education Committee in the House and frequently has spoken about the fact that teachers need to be paid more and has spoken about his support specifically for that.

And so he claimed that this, this measure was brought about to ensure that school budgets were prioritizing what he felt were the most important things.

But that has been met with a lot of criticism.

There's several groups who have said this would really just harm schools overall, including the Education Forward Arizona group, which is, um, a pro-education group.

Arizona School Boards Association, um, has also brought out their opposition, and several other school districts have said this would harm them.

What was that about, and why didn't this actually make it onto the ballot?