AEN looks at spending on classroom instruction

by David Safier

The Arizona Education Network, which started up recently as a response to cuts in education funding, has grown into one of the most valuable organizations of its kind in the state. Operating with little or no money and an incredible amount of time and dedication from its volunteers, AEN has created a deep website filled with valuable information, and it has built itself into a statewide network bringing together, in its words, "parents, businessmen & women, and community members who value public education."

The media should be contacting these folks on a regular basis. If we don't see AEN quotes scattered throughout education stories in the near future, reporters are missing an important and valuable resource.

AEN's latest is A Closer Look at classroom instruction statistics recently published by the Auditor General. It takes ideas I've only touched on and develops them with a scholar's attention to detail and accuracy.

There's lots worth reading, but here are two items I want to highlight. First, a comparison of the percent of its ed budget Arizona spends on non-classroom instruction items compared to the national average.

Arizona spends less on administration (9%) than the national average (10.8%) and more on everything else. We spend more on student support like counselors, nurses, etc. — probably a good thing, especially in a state with lots of students from low income families. More on food services could reflect our low income population and the amount spent on free/reduced lunches.

None of the non-classroom spending items is a red flag of a bloated educational bureaucracy. To the contrary, the money spent on administration — almost 2% less than the national average — makes us look pretty thrifty in that area.

The other item is a head-to-head comparison of the spending percentages at Arizona's district and charter schools.

According to AEN's figures, district schools spend about 8% more in the classroom and a whopping 12% less on administration. The chart shows charters spending more than twice as much on administration — quite a gap!

I depend on AEN's email newsletters to keep me up to date and informed. If you want to get on their email list, go to the home page and click the Join Us button near the bottom.