Arizona public district and charter schools will face a $266 million funding gap because the state funds distance learning at a lower rate than in-person learning. It’s a gap that only will be partially filled by federal money.
The Arizona Department of Education released numbers this week showing how much schools will need to cut their budgets by for this school year. Mesa Public Schools, the largest district in the state, will see its budget cut by $16 million. Chandler Unified will lose $12 million. Tucson Unified will lose $11.9 million.
School funding is calculated per student in Arizona. In June Gov. Doug Ducey made an executive order that declared distance learning equivalent to online school. Under state law, online school students are funded at a rate 5{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} less than in-person students. Arizona school budgets also were hit this year because an estimated 50,000 fewer students than usual enrolled.
The lower distance learning rate and enrollment declines are a one-two punch for schools.
“Schools already struggling to maintain operations and meet their students’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic cannot afford cuts to their budgets,” schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman said in a statement.
Federal CARES Act money allocated to schools by Ducey is meant to make up the funding gap created by distance learning and enrollment declines.
However, those grants have come up short, bringing in less than anticipated for some schools because of higher enrollment losses than anticipated.
Still, Arizona K-12 schools have received $716 million in federal funds.
C.J. Karamargin, a spokesperson for Ducey’s office, said that funding for education is a top priority for the administration. He had no specific comment about why distance learning was funded at a lower rate than in-person learning.
Because of the unpredictable nature of this school year, officials did not know how many students would end up attending school online and how many would attend in person. Numbers out this week are an estimate for the year, and the amounts could fluctuate slightly as the year continues, according to Chuck Essigs, director of government relations at the Arizona Association of School Business Officials.
Essigs said the state could have avoided such a shortfall by funding distance learning at the same rate as in-person learning.
“Districts are staffing distance learning just the same way they are staffing when kids come to school,” he said.
Hoffman added that the state is relying on federal funding to make up school budget shortfalls, even with $1 billion in its rainy day fund.
“There’s no excuse to not be funding our schools at appropriate levels and funding students at 100{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1},” she said in an interview with The Arizona Republic.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @LilyAlta.
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