Arizona Public Schools Need to Know from the State Legislature Now What Money They Will Receive Next Year

The Coronavirus Pandemic has had a horrible effect on the Grand Canyon State’s education system.

An as-yet-undetermined  learning gap has probably been created due to factors including:

• A digital divide that hit the most impoverished Arizona families at the early stages of school closures.
• Families opting to homeschool their children.
• The less than ideal but necessary resorting to digital learning during the pandemic.

The pandemic has also further exposed physical school building shortfalls that funding aid from the Federal Government in the CARES and Rescue Acts have helped to address.

COVID 19 has also revealed economic faultlines in Arizona’s public schools that also necessitate infusions of state funding.

According to reporting from the Capitol Times, traditional public district school enrollment has also fallen by about 55,000 students this year which is approximately five percent of the total school population.

Since schools in Arizona are paid by the number of students they have, this enrollment decline has created a multimillion-dollar budget hole for several Grand Canyon State districts.

One district is Gilbert in the East Valley of Maricopa County.

Faced with a potential budget deficit thanks to decreased enrollment, the K-12 district decided to be preemptive and issued 152 layoff notices to selected instructors.

Think about that.

In a time when Arizona class sizes are bursting in most cases and there is a teacher shortage, a major East Valley school district is laying off teachers.

More school districts may also lay off staff. 

While it is probable that most of the 55,000 students that were not in district schools will return by the fall of the 2021/22 school year, Arizona Public Schools need to know NOW what monies they will receive from fiscal 2022 (and probably 2023) state budgets to help them manage any budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic.

What to Do?

One suggestion to financially help schools was put forward by Arizona House Education Chairperson Michelle Udall (who represents people in Legislative District 25) who, in an exchange of letters with Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman, suggested that the Department of Education use the remaining discretionary funds from the first federal aid packages to distribute to the schools.

Ms. Udall thought the Department of Education had $85 million to distribute.

Department of Education spokespersons Richie Taylor and Morgan Dick relayed that the actual dollar figure was $57 million and that:

” While the Superintendent has the discretion, with the remaining $57 million dollars, there is simply not enough funding to fully close the gap for schools. The leftover discretionary funds would only be able to cover the budget shortfalls from five LEA’s. The state legislature needs to step up and keep the promises made to schools through the enrollment stability grant program last summer.”

The view expressed by the Department of Education is correct. $57 million spread out over all of Arizona’s public schools is not going to solve the budget shortfall situation.

Please click below to see how the Arizona Department of Education has allocated federal discretionary spending so far.

Federal Recovery and Relief Funding_ ADE Projects (ESSER One Pager Final) 1

Moving forward, Ms. Dick, commenting for Superintendent Hoffman and the Arizona Department of Education on the now beginning budget negotiations at the State Capitol:

“Budget negotiations are only beginning at the state Capitol. Superintendent Hoffman continues to urge lawmakers to fill funding gaps, and provide schools with sustainable long-term funding. They also need to reject SB1783 which would gut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding approved by voters for public education. They should fully fund distance learning at the same rate as in-person learning. Those would be concrete steps that would help districts like Gilbert now and long-term.”

These views were mostly echoed by two Democratic members of the House Education Committee.

Ranking Member and LD 17 State Representative Jennifer Pawlik commented:

“Most of our public schools are struggling right now due to increased costs of operating during a pandemic coupled with decreased enrollment. One-time funding was made available through various sources, but truly it is sustainable, ongoing funding that will save jobs. The governor has $1B in the “Rainy Day Fund” and revenues are higher than anticipated. We need to fund our schools properly…and we shouldn’t wait until June 30th to do so.”

“The ESSR I and ESSR 2 are federal dollars intended to help schools with the additional costs due to COVID 19; some of those dollars can be used to retain teachers. However, the funds only benefitted Title One schools; non-Title One schools also experienced increased operating costs. Ten of Gilbert’s forty schools are Title One.”

“The Enrollment Stabilization Grants are state dollars. The program recognized that enrollment would likely dip as some parents chose to keep their children at home and others chose alternative settings. Schools were expecting to be “held harmless” for the decrease in enrollment beyond 2%. Unfortunately, they were notified mid-year that they would not receive their full grant amount. Gilbert received only 42% of their expected allocation; they received approximately $19 million less than anticipated.”

“The other big question is where have the children gone? Will they be back for the 21-22 school year?”

“Additionally, schools were funded 95% ADM (average daily membership) for virtual learning. Some schools began later than normal and were required to be online the first two weeks of the 20-21 school year. This also impacted budgets.”

“Nearly 52% of voters supported Proposition 208 which would provide sustainable funding for Arizona’s schools, but SB 1783 creates loopholes that would reduce the amount of funding available.”

LD 20 State Representative Judy Schwiebert wrote:

“This should not be a partisan issue. We all want every student to get the quality education they deserve, so during this unprecedented time we should be working together – ready to move mountains to make sure that our school districts have the resources they need to keep our desperately needed teachers in our classrooms, and schools open.”

“Instead, because of the way Arizona funds our schools, not only has Gilbert RIF’d 152 teachers, but the Glendale Elementary District on my side of town announced last month that they are having to close five of their school campuses. Like many others, I’m concerned that these districts may be the first of many to have to make extraordinary cuts.”

“Thank goodness for the federal money that has helped to some extent. However, as Superintendent Hoffman points out, the Enrollment Stability Grants promised last summer by Gov Ducey fell short by more than $240 million of what was promised.”

“After the election in November, when I spoke to the school superintendents in my district they all said stability funding was their very top concern. Because so many students disappeared from our schools during the pandemic, they were all facing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding losses for next year. The first bill I proposed would have allowed them to base their funding on a previous year of “normal” enrollment which would have helped them avoid layoffs and maintain campuses. However, that bill was not heard in the Education Committee. That would have helped alleviate the situation we’re in right now.”

“So, what now? Superintendent Hoffman’s office has already allocated the $63 million in federal funding for pandemic-related issues which is still far short of the $240 million-plus that school districts were promised with the Enrollment Stabilization Grant program. Also, the American Rescue Plan funding that we are all awaiting is one-time and so it’s not realistic for ongoing costs such as teacher salaries.”

“However, the legislature and the governor both do have the ability to provide immediate, desperately-needed funding for our students. I hope that we would avoid finger-pointing, and instead take immediate action in this critical time to make sure every student has a qualified teacher and a safe classroom environment in which to learn.”

Represenative Schwiebert is right.

This is not a time for finger-pointing.

This is not a time for partisanship.

The solutions to the public school budget shortfall, as pointed out by Pawlik, Schweibert, and the spokespeople for Superintendent Hoffman are obvious. They are:

• Fully fund the enrollment stabilization grant program.
• Fully fund distance learning (at least for this year, next, and perhaps 2023.)
• Increase state funding toward public schools.
• Stop trying to go around the will of the voters by passing SB 1783 so the richest millionaires in Arizona can get around paying taxes that go toward the Proposition 208-Invest in Ed fund. It should be noted that Save Our Schools Arizona has joined an amicus brief by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Education Law Center against SB 1783.

This should be done NOW so schools can appropriately plan for the 2021-2022 school year and beyond.

If the legislature acts quickly enough, maybe districts like Gilbert will rescind or pull back their intentions to lay off teachers.

That would be a win-win for the children of Arizona.