Quick Facts on Education

Have you ever wondered how much of the state’s general fund budget they believe goes to education?

The reality is that the Legislature appropriates over 50% of the state’s general fund monies for education!

The Legislature appropriated 41% of general fund dollars to K-12 education ($4.3 billion) and 11% ($1.1 billion) to universities. [1]

(Caveat: Federal funds are outside the Legislature’s control. Educational programs and many, many other state programs receive federal funds (like welfare programs). When you add together all legislatively appropriated state general fund dollars and all other funds such as federal funds, then the state spends 21% of all funds for K-12 education and 12% on universities. Either way, K-12 education is the top funded item in Arizona.)

**To clarify the data presented, the average per pupil funding quoted includes all funding (maintenance and operations and capital) from all sources (federal, state and local), and represents a statewide average. Although I do not have the district by district breakdown for all funding sources and expenditures in front of me, I do have district reported data for FY 2007 for maintenance and operations spending, and this includes teachers' and teachers' aides' salaries and benefits, instructional supplies, instructional aids (textbooks, software, etc.) and activities. This constitutes classroom dollars, and excludes administration, food service, support services (counselors, librarians, etc), transportation and building operation and maintenance (this is non-classroom). Again, this is self-reported data from the school districts for FY 2007. As you know, an average is calculated by taking the total expenditures and dividing that by the number of students. An average does not represent an exact amount, and some districts will always be above the average and some below and there are many reasons for this average.

The statewide average for the classroom dollars in FY 2007 was $4,277 (again, this number does not include the items listed above) and total dollars was $7,382 (the discrepancy can be accounted for in lots of ways as some items are not accounted for in different comparisons, ie. this number may not include all sources of revenue, but looks at expenditures while the original number quoted is revenue per student from all sources). For Bullhead City Elementary, the classroom dollars average per pupil was $3,728 (total was $6,218) and for Lake Havasu City Unified the average was $4,040 (total was $6,598). There is no single reason why these districts are at these amounts, as the complexity of school funding and expenditures prevents an analysis of generalized data. Additionally, some school districts levy local taxes while others do not, thus raising the averages over those that do not levy locally. For Bullhead City Elementary, some of this difference may be in the average teacher years of experience (5.8 years) versus the state average (8.1 years) which can affect the average teacher salary ($38,700 versus state average of $43,833) and classroom dollars.

These districts would need to do a detailed analysis of their revenues and expenditures in order to determine if they are maximizing their available dollars.

As for school building renewal monies, these amounts have been cut in the past due to the failure of school districts to use the funds that they had been provided, and the federal courts have upheld that this failure to use these monies, along with failing to provide proof that these funds are necessary, have allowed the Governor and the Legislature to cut these funds.