Arizona's schools saw half a percent drop in classroom spending, according to an annual report released Tuesday from the Auditor General.
The figures show slightly less than 56 cents of every dollar spent in the 2009-10 school year was used for "classroom instruction," including salaries and benefits for teachers, aides and coaches. It also covers supplies like pencils and paper, athletics, and activities like band or choir.
In the last few years, Arizona schools have seen a decline in the dollars they receive from a 2000 voter-created tax and other revenue.
Proposition 301 created the classroom site fund, which gave public schools - charter and district - extra dollars from a designated sales tax and revenues from state land sales.
But because of the economy, both those areas have seen drops, decreasing the dollars available to schools, said Chuck Essigs, director of government relations for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials.
"That's an important factor," Essigs said. "As people look at the report just issued, they should recognize that was a significant loss of revenue in the classroom."
In fact, from the 2007-08 school year to the 2009-10 school year - which is covered by the recent Auditor General's report - the classroom site fund dropped by 48 percent, or $224 million.
"That certainly impacted the percentage of dollars spent in the classroom," Essigs said.
Mesa Unified School District, the largest in the state, saw a half a percent drop in classroom spending, according to the report.
But it also saw a drop in how much it spends in administrative costs, from 7.9 percent in 2009 to 7.7 percent in 2010.
Arizona school districts average 9.5 percent spending on administrative costs, according to the report.
Mesa assistant superintendent for business services Gerrick Monroe said teachers have not had a raise in several years, while the costs to operate the district continue to rise, from transportation to utilities to health care expenses.
Like the past few years, school districts are facing potential cuts as the state grapples with a deficit - more than $1 billion next year.
"We've made our reductions as much as possible outside the classroom," Monroe said.
With the drop in the classroom site funds, teachers have seen about a $2,500 drop in their incentive pay in the last two years, he said.
"Even though we've stepped in from a contractual standpoint and tried to keep their salaries as similar as possible, their bonus portion fluctuates depending on (classroom site fund) revenue that has come in," he said.
In fact, Auditor General Debra Davenport listed total operational spending per pupil for last school year at $7,609, compared with $7,908 the year before.
And Arizona remains close to $2,500 below the national average in per pupil spending.
Selected districts (%):
| School district | % 10 money in instruction | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
| Apache Junction Unified | 55.00% | 56.90% | 54.50% | 55.80% | 54.50% |
| Chandler Unified | 62.00% | 62.40% | 62.30% | 63.20% | 63.70% |
| Gilbert Unified | 62.00% | 62.70% | 63.20% | 63.00% | 63.30% |
| Higley Unified | 54.90% | 55.00% | 57.00% | 57.70% | 58.60% |
| Kyrene Elementary | 61.00% | 62.90% | 63.30% | 63.50% | 64.00% |
| Mesa Unified | 59.30% | 59.80% | 61.40% | 62.10% | 62.70% |
| Queen Creek Unified | 59.90% | 59.70% | 60.70% | 60.00% | 57.80% |
| Tempe Elementary | 54.20% | 56.00% | 55.30% | 55.40% | 55.50% |
| Tempe Union | 56.70% | 56.80% | 59.90% | 59.70% | 59.60% |
Source: Auditor General's Office
Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services contributed to this report.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 4:23 pm on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
"Teachers have not had a raise in several years".
"Teachers have seen a $2,500 drop in....INCENTIVE PAY (extra pay on TOP of their salaries to do a good job in the classroom) in the last two years"
Hello....could the Arizona teachers have a....REALITY CHECK....about now. These teachers are...COMPLAINING...about not getting a..RAISE... and not getting an ...EXTRA $2,500...in Incentive Pay. Do the Arizona teachers read the papers...watch the news...turn on the radion ???.......WE ARE IN THE WORST RECESSION/DEPRESSION SINCE THE 1920'S ! ! !
The Arizona tax-payers who....PAY THE SALARIES...of these teachers have seen ..THEIR SALARIES CUT BY 1/4...TO...1/3....TO ...1/2...that is if they haven't been fired or forloughed..........AND THESE TEACHERS WANT RAISES AND INCENTIVE PAY ????
Folks, before you pick yourselves off the floor from reading the SELFISH, ECONOMICALLY IGNORANT COMPLAINTS FROM THESE ....TEACHERS.........check out what you, the ARIZONA TAX-PAYERS....are paying to educate ....ILLEGAL ALIEN CHILDREN AND ANCHOR BABIES = $7,609.00 a year....and there are about 60,000 of them in Arizona = HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO TEACH MEXICAN SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN WHO ARE IN ARIZONA ILLEGALLY.
Don't just blame OBAMA, PELOSI AND REID...for this problem......MC CAIN, KYL and Congressman JEFF FLAKE...all ...SUPPORT...........ILLEGAL ALIEN AMNESTY....TOO ! ! !
asuaguila posted at 5:28 pm on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
Teachers before the recession were already underpaid. And those teachers are still taking care of the children of this state and doing an excellent job besides in spite what dopes like you think. The recession was not created by the immigrants in Arizona and they pay taxes, since sales tax is the primary form of state revenue.
mesateacher posted at 5:29 pm on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
Wait just one minute Leon! It's not a teacher who mentioned the lack of raises: it was one of the over-paid superintendents, whose six-figure salary has risen over the past few years. You don't see Mesa teachers picketing or striking over salaries. They get the fact that there's a recession, there's no money, etc. What they don't like is having more and more stuff dumped on them and taking on more responsibility and at the same time seeing their incomes go down. When Dr. Monroe says they've cut as much as they possibly can you can count on one thing: he's lying. There are many more ways to cut expenses that would not affect classrooms. The problem is that there isn't a real leader in Mesa with the testicular fortitude to do it: cut extracurricular sports. That's right: basketball, football, baseball, track. Boys and girls. Cut, cut, cut! The US isn't in a race to produce football players with the Chinese, but we are in a race to produce engineers and scientists. Put the money where it belongs! And then start whacking away at high paid administrators. If you work for a school district and you don't deal with students everyday, then your job is on the line.
Just Me posted at 7:28 pm on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
asuaguila....How are the illegals paying taxes? From their under the table jobs? Is there a tax box for collection at Home depot or Circle K? If you are going to be ignorant to the issues it is perhaps better to not spout leftist propaganda. The illegals are NOT paying taxes for the most part. I guess you think that those who want them gone are racists too, huh?
Cerulean posted at 8:12 pm on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
Just Me,
Like asuaguila said, "sales tax is the primary form of state revenue." Is that really that difficult to understand?
Yes, there is a collection box at Home Depot and Circle K, it is called a cash register.
Illegals pay as much tax as you, no doubt, do.
soricobob posted at 5:27 am on Wed, Mar 2, 2011.
Let's see, since it has never been proven that smaller classes (above 3rd grade) equals better learning, and since no one would argue that administration could be cut (except administrators), and ditto for "student support" and "instruction support", the only section of the current budget(s) I would not touch is "food service" and "plant operation and Maintenance": anyone who wants to fix something rather than prevent it from breaking has never been in the unenviable position. And, if you have never seen a hungry child trying to pay attention in class, then you need to not discuss food service (if anything, that should be increased to include breakfast).
DrunkenMonkey posted at 7:06 am on Wed, Mar 2, 2011.
I'd like to see the ratio of children:teacher:administrators. I've always thought the administration was over populated and over paid vs. teachers.
1. Start at the top with pay cuts (10% at least)
2. Remove teachers that are retired, but still working, drawing both retirement pay as well as regular pay, giving teachers that are currently out of work an opportunity to get back in the workforce.
3. Quit building new facilities. (ie, Buildings, swimming pools, weight rooms, etc...) some of the older facilities are perfectly fine, with some repair.
4. Cut extra-curricular, use video instead of field trips, etc...
5. Stop purchasing Laptops for students to take home. They should have computers at school to be used AT school. Why would I want to buy my child a computer if she could get one at school?
6. Streamline criteria for free lunches.
7. Loose the Ala Carte', unless the profit pays for the program.
Need more? That's just off the top of my head without research, so likely some of it is more difficult than it may appear. Fact is, there are plenty of ways to cut more. it doesn't have to be a forever cut, but if you want to see improvement in the future, you need to learn a little suck up now... It doesn't have to be the teachers that are getting shafted.
School is for education, not for fashion, fad, sports, recreation, or socializing. Our education system has lost it's focus on education and needs to refocus their efforts there. I'm no English major, but I see on a daily basis what is being turned out of our schools. (He's dumb as a box of rocks... but he sure can play football.) (She'll only be as smart as her husband)
mst431 posted at 11:35 am on Wed, Mar 2, 2011.
Wow. It would have been nice if any of you had actually read the report before you started spouting your party's propaganda.
http://www.auditorgen.state.az.us/Reports/School_Districts/Statewide/2011_February/Classroom_Dollars_FY10.pdf
The state spends less on administration than the national average, in both dollars per pupil, and percentage of budget.
Arizona spends less per pupil, $7,609, than the national average, $10,297. We spend less on administration, we spend less on classroom instruction, we spend less on food service, and instructional support.
We spend a higher percentage of our budget on utilities & maintenance than the national average, but less dollars per pupil because of our much larger class sizes.
Average teacher experience is 10.6 years and average salary is $47k. That is about $4,500 less than the national average salary for teachers.
samkat posted at 5:15 pm on Wed, Mar 2, 2011.
Cerulean: I doubt the average illegal pays as much in taxes as the average legal citizen regardless of what the illegal supporters have to say. Where are you statistics? By the way, please prove that they pay as much as the average citizen to have heir children educated.
Cerulean posted at 10:53 am on Thu, Mar 3, 2011.
samkat,
I do not have statistics on what illegal citizens buy or how much they spend. My guess is that the average illegal citizen is poor, they do not spend much. I also imagine that Arizona has a higher than average ratio of senior citizens who do not spend much - they vote.
I get so tired of the punitive vitriol directed toward a group of people who were, not only INVITED they were encouraged to come to Arizona to fill intensive labor jobs. They worked VERY HARD when whole neighborhoods were manufactured in a few months time.
I am not an illegal supporter, When the rest of the country were content to look toward Iraq, I saw what was happening in my back yard. I do not hate immigrants, I understand why they are here. I think we can educate their children.