Dive Brief:
- Arizona could owe its districts and charter schools as much as $1.7 billion after the state's Supreme Court ruled that it had not provided proper funding under 2000's Proposition 301.
- Meant to address inflation, Prop 301 raised the state's sales tax by 0.6% in order to fund schoolswhile also requiring a raise to its per pupil funding starting point each year or to "other components of the revenue control limit."
- Schools sued in 2009 because the Great Recession saw lawmakers take advantage of the "or" clause and began only boosting school-related funding, like transportation, instead of the per-pupil funding base.
- The state contends the court doesn't have the power to mandate that it pay, and lawyers want the state's higher-than-required pre-recession funding increases to be taken into consideration as credit — but schools say they don't only want to be reimbursed, but paid interest on the amount owed.
Dive Insight:
While the state Supreme Court already ruled the state owes schools the money, the amount has yet to be determined.
Senate President Andy Biggs (R-Gilbert) is among those arguing that the early 2000s funding increases should be taken into consideration, as Arizona raised the base student per-pupil funding amount more than necessary during those economically plush years. Therefore, he says the state should really owe schools something more like $80 million.
Others, however, are fearful that the state will get away with not properly making up for the years it failed to increase per pupil funding. Chuck Essigs, director of governmental relations for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, told the Arizona Republic, "If the court doesn't require the state to pay, schools will be penalized by having less money forever. Kids who aren't even born today will be penalized if this isn't done correctly."
Currently, Arizona ranks as one of the lowest states for per pupil funding, and it has set aside $3,373 per pupil for the 2015 fiscal year.
