Republican Gov. Jan Brewer

Census Proves Arizona Lags in School Funding

Our view: State ranks 41st in nation, must not further gut investment in future

TUCSON (Arizona Daily Star) August 7, 2009 — Dollars alone cannot fix problems in public education, but they sure can make a difference. A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms what other studies have been telling us for years: Arizona invests substantially less in its public school system, and our young people, than most other states.

As a result, Arizona is investing far less in our state's future than other states.

This report should put to rest contentions from conservative state lawmakers and others that Arizona spends enough — or even too much — on public education.

According to the Census, our state spends $4,335 a year per pupil and ranks 41st in the country.
The report is based on 2007 data, the most recent available, and lists Arizona as spending $7,196 per pupil from all sources, which includes federal and state funding, plus grants and other revenues. This places Arizona above only Tennessee, Idaho and Utah.

The Census data do not include many Arizona charter schools, which are public schools that are privately run. The majority of students attend public district schools, and the report should reinforce a sense of urgency that Arizona must do better by its children.

This report is interesting because it takes into account Arizona's relatively low personal income levels compared with other states, which moves us up to 34th in the nation. There is no comfort in saying, "Yay, we're less crummy than some other states!"

Most telling is a figure tucked into the report that shows Arizona scraping the bottom among states' spending on classroom instruction. It doesn't take trigonometry to figure out that our children are being short-changed. This paucity makes it even more urgent that school districts get every cent possible into the classroom.

In Arizona, we're not talking about providing gold-plated desks for students or fancy trinkets for teachers. We're talking about making sure schools can buy textbooks, school supplies and have enough to hire a librarian and (gasp) a counselor.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, the state's top elected school official, supports the link between classroom funding and kids learning.
"Even at the spending levels we're at, our test scores are above the national average," he said in a story by Capitol Media Services. "So if we could get our resources up to the national average, I think we'd be one of the top, top states nationally in academics because of our emphasis on academic rigor in the classroom."

The Legislature gutted public education spending in its July 1 budget bill, much of which then was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer.

A new education budget was approved by lawmakers that restores and adds to school funding. This is a positive step, and it must be protected as the Legislature struggles through the rest of the budget process.

Schools can't confidently spend money on restoring staffing to previous levels or buying textbooks or equipment until they know, for certain, that their state budget is set.

Lawmakers should heed this latest Census report and take a hard look at how Arizona stacks up against other states. They must remember that other people, namely prospective employers looking for a place to start or locate a company, examine those same reports and judge Arizona accordingly.
That's a test we can't afford to fail.

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