Lower than projected student enrollment figures have caused some of Arizona’s traditional and charter public schools to lose greater revenues than anticipated during the summer.
During the summer, Arizona and other states received CARES act funding designed to go to aid public schools.
Governor Doug Ducey and his team said that schools and districts could apply for stabilization grants that would allow them to make up for most of their budget shortfalls.
The consensus at the time was enrollment would drop no more than two percent on average across Arizona schools.
Unfortunately, enrollment declines have been markedly greater in some districts (Bullhead City for example had an 11 percent reduction. Chandler lost close to nine percent.)
According to reporting from Lily Altavena at AZ Central, approximately 50,000 fewer children have attended Arizona schools so far compared to the last school year. The numbers are starker if kindergarten is just considered.
The reasons for this are multifold. They may include:
- An increase in homeschooling.
- Transfers to charter or online schools that have not been accounted for yet.
- Families have moved.
- Families have decided not to send their children to school until it is safe.
The result of this greater decline is that the $370 million the Governor’s office has allocated to distribute to the Grand Canyon State’s traditional and charter public schools to make up for the bulk of their budget shortfalls is not sufficient for many of them.
With Proposition 208 funding not expected to be sent to schools until 2022, the Governor should consider sending more CAREs funding to the schools instead of holding funds in reserve like he has for cities and towns not named Phoenix, Mesa, and Tucson.
That and/or the Legislature will need to rise to the occasion when it reconvenes in January and appropriate the needed funds for schools from either the rainy day fund or fiscal surplus.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman thinks so. In a social media posting on December 3, 2020, she wrote:
“Our state must uphold the entirety of its promise to provide budget stabilization for schools. Governor Doug Ducey has a responsibility to work with education stakeholders and the Legislature on a solution that provides every school the funds promised to them.”
Other education activists have expressed similar views as Superintendent Hoffman.
Dawn Penich-Thacker, the Co-Founder and Communications Director for Save Our Schools wrote:
“The disparity in Gov. Ducey’s grant funds only makes more clear the damage caused by the irregular, inequitable funding schemes so frequently used in Arizona. Rather than adequately and reliably funding our public schools in ways that allow school leaders to plan and maximize the dollars, the Governor relies on a constant trickle of unpredictable and arbitrary one-time offers that widen the gap between the haves and have nots. This pandemic made even more clear how our rural and low-income schools suffer from chronic underfunding, especially in terms of technology and infrastructure, and it’s infuriating to see the Governor’s latest grant scheme largely ignoring and failing to address that reality. It’s clear that public education advocates like SOSAZ, especially in rural and lower-income areas, will have our work cut out for us fighting for scraps this next Legislative session.”
David Lujan, the head of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress and a former Democratic leader in the Arizona State Legislature, relayed:
“It’s shameful. There is close to $1 billion in the rainy day fund and an estimated $400 million in revenue surplus so there are no excuses for the state not to keep its promises to Arizona’s public schools.”
Joe Thomas, the President of the Arizona Education Association commented:
“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that Governor Ducey once again comes up short on students and schools. The state budget is sufficient to provide our schools 100% of what the funding formula calls for, and can certainly meet the 98% he agreed to and promised schools as they were creating their district budgets. Revenue in up in Arizona over $400 million. We have $1 billion in our rainy day fund. The governor needs to meet his obligation and his promise to fund our public schools.”
Arizona Schools were have been continually short-changed since the Great Recession of 2009.
Governor Ducey and the Republican members of the State Legislature should not make matters worse by shortchanging the Grand Canyon State’s public schools again as the Coronavirus still rages on.
The funds are there.
The time for balancing the state budget on the backs of school children should be over.
It is time for Ducey and Republicans to fully allocate stabilization funds for public schools and make sure all education stakeholders are safe and totally provided for.
A charter school is NOT a public school..it is a privately operated school receiving public taxpayer money. Its governing board, if any, is not answerable to the public. If want to know what they do with their “voluntary” donations to the “teacher improvement fund”, don’t ask! If you want to know if the corporate owners live in a penthouse in New York City, or whether the finance officers actually live in Colorado, don’t ask!
I am sorry to disagree with you Frances but I founded and owned a charter school for 20 years. It was an accredited public school, sponsored first by the State Board of Education and then the Charter School Board. Arizona Revised Statutes designate them public schools. The school went through annual audits answerable to the state. I did not profit in any way as the people who worked for me and attended can attest. The school was a 501 C3. You really should not paint with broad brush strokes.
David, sounds like you ran your charter school the way they should all be run. Accreditation and accountability aside, the bottom line is private charter schools should be funded with private, not public money. Using public money just takes it away from the public schools and their larger student populations that really need it. Hope you’re enjoying your weekend.
Sorry. I have no sympathy for any for profit charter school which loses enrollment. Too bad, droppen zie dead, Bazis.