Arizona is near the bottom of all states when it comes to spending money on public education, according to a new report.
The study by the U.S. Census Bureau shows per pupil spending in Arizona at $7,848. That compares with $10,615 nationwide and puts the state ahead of only Idaho and Utah.
But the report also shows that this isn’t simply a function of Arizona being a less expensive place to live, a figure that is repeatedly reflected in the fact that per capita personal income in the state lags the national average.
The Census Bureau also looked at classroom spending in each state based on personal income for that state.
That, however, moved Arizona up in the rankings only a bit. Its figure of $40.55 for each $1,000 of personal income left it ahead of only Tennessee, Florida and the District of Columbia.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said the state had to cut education funding in prior years to balance the budget.
He said some of that was restored, with an additional $177 million put into public schools this year. That includes $40 million given to schools to help ensure that children know how to read by the end of third grade.
“But it’s also a mistake to judge education by per student funding,” said Kavanagh, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee.
“If per pupil funding were the most important factor, parents would be rushing to send their children to school in Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C.,” he said. “They have the highest per pupil funding in the nation. But they also have the worst performance.”
State School Superintendent John Huppenthal agreed.
“Contrary to popular perception, our education system is slightly above the national average,” he said. “When you have our cost equation, it means we run a much, much more cost-effective school system than any other state in the nation.”
Huppenthal acknoweldged that figures from last year’s National Assessment of Education Progress actually show the state lagged the national average in each of the four categories where students in fourth and eighth grade were tested. That includes math, reading, science and writing.
A further analysis shows other patterns.
For example, 28 percent of Arizona eighth graders were listed as proficient or advanced in reading. That compares with 32 percent nationwide.
But Huppenthal said the Rand Corp., a conservative think tank, does its own analysis of those NAEP scores, one he said shows Arizona above the national average.
Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, Kavanagh’s Senate counterpart, was more willing to link funding to academic achievement.
“Of course it’s a factor,” he said, though he said it’s not the “total picture.”
Shooter said, though, lawmakers had little choice when the economy went in the tank — and tax collections shrank -- to make some of the spending cuts in education. He said part of that is because other big-ticket items, like the state’s Medicaid program, are protected at least in part by voter-approved requirements, making them off-limits to legislative cuts.
But Ann-Eve Pedersen disputed the contention there is no correlation between money for schools and achievement. More to the point, she said there is a minimum funding requirement -- and Arizona is below it.
“We have reduced education funding levels to the point where they’re really not sustainable for our students and our teachers,” said Pedersen. She is spearheading an effort to permanently extend the temporary one-cent sales tax surcharge, with most of the cash earmarked for public education.
Pedersen pointed out that Gov. Jan Brewer sought an additional $200 million for the coming school year for “soft capital” expenses, things like books, computers and classroom supplies. The Republican-controlled Legislature refused to go along, instead adding $15 million in general capital funds to be divided up among all the school districts in the state.
The result, Pedersen said, is “parents and education supporters have to stand outside of Safeway and collect receipts just so schools will have enough money for basics like pens, paper and pencils for students in classrooms.”
The grocery chain offers a cash rebate for receipts collected during a period at the beginning of the school year.
But Shooter thinks the initiative — which may or may not qualify for the ballot because of a legal fight over paperwork — is a bad way to put more money into education.
“I think it’s a disaster,” he said, saying there is no real oversight of how the cash would be used.
Some of the cash raised — estimated to be at least $1 billion a year — does have specific performance measure that schools would have to meet to get extra cash. But the bulk of the funding has no such restrictions.
Kavanagh said the lack of legislative review of the funding also means a lack of flexibility to move dollars to the programs with the most need.
He cited that $40 million lawmakers approved this year for early childhood reading programs, saying that backs up a state law which will require youngsters to read at third-grade level before they can be promoted to fourth grade.
Pedersen said those NAEP scores have definite economic fallout. She said some firms won’t relocate here because of lackluster funding of public education.
And there are implications for companies already here who try to recruit engineers and other skilled professionals from elsewhere.
“Those families, if they have children, look at what our rankings are,” Pedersen said. “We’re at a disadvantage because those parents don’t want to come to Arizona and bring their children here because they’re worried that the quality of education that their children will receive is not up to par.”
Pedersen’s group is scheduled to file its initiative petitions Monday. But the question of whether the issue makes the November ballot hangs on whether a court concludes backers have met all the legal requirements.
wangly posted at 7:01 pm on Thu, Nov 8, 2012.
smoke grenade is a prohibited item, it was in the the louis vuitton alma the checked luggage and not accessible to Harris.There is no
the official said, that Harris intended to harm the aircraft.Nevertheless, aircraft.Nevertheless, replica louis vuitton handbags aircraft.Nevertheless, the TSA is working with Korean authorities to determine
a prohibited item -- the smoke grenade -- was allowed allowed cheap designer handbags allowed on to the plane.According to authorities, Harris began his
trip in China, where he purchased a one-way ticket to to louis vuitton factory outlet to Korea.In Korea, he purchased the ticket that took him
Japan to LAX. His final destination was to be Boston, Boston, cheap designer handbags Boston, authorities said.The China ticket information did not appear in
federal affidavit on the case because that leg of the the replica designer handbags the trip wasn't immediately apparent from the U.S.-bound ticket authorities
found in Harris' possession.Harris, when detained, was questioned by a a louis vuitton alma a series of detectives before invoking his right to counsel.
described him as savvy and closed.Harris only made his one one replica designer handbags one potentially relevant statement -- "almost like he was talking
himself" -- when he relaxed during an interview with one one cheap louis vuitton handbags one detective who had a family member that had the
last name as his mother's maiden name, sources said.Though he he cheap replica handbags he was arrested Friday, because of the federal holiday Harris
his initial appearance Tuesday in a Los Angeles federal court court louis vuitton factory outlet court and remained in federal custody. Harris was scheduled to
chodytaint posted at 12:24 pm on Sun, Sep 30, 2012.
Oh please, drop the "illegal aliens bring down our scores" garbage. In senior year, more than half my English class could barely read aloud from a book; and they were all white!
DrJCA1 posted at 10:34 pm on Mon, Jul 9, 2012.
In the USA, the mentality is that lots of money equals something of quality, and low amounts of money equals somehting bad. This is the biggest buch of horse manure I've ever heard. There are schools in every district that have students do very well while others do poorly. Same schools, same teachers, same money. The huge difference? Parental and family involvement.
I find it so funny that people complain about the size of the classroom when it approaches 25-30 students per teacher. Growing up in Brooklyn we had 50-60 students per teacher in schools that had nothing - all built around the turn of the century. The other common thread in our neighborhood was that we were all dirt poor living in the temement slums. Amazingly, almost every one of us graduated high school and most went on to college or a trade school. Now, how did that happen, you ask. Again, parents who were actively involved in their children's lives to include school. Mom stayed home and ensured the family was taken care of. Dad went out and worked to support the family. We were taught respect for teachers and other authority figures and god help us if we caused trouble at school. Almost all of my friends did very well for themselves in business, education, and various professions.
Today, mom and dad both go to work so they can get those two Lexus', Rolexes, Gucci handbags, or half million dollar house they don't need. The kids are running around unsupervised and parents are far too busy to be involved with them. The schools are not baby-sitters and because of PC, they pass through all of these kids to the next grade (don't want to offend anyone or get sued). Hence, we have high schoolers who cannot read, write, spell, or speak properly among other problems.
You can throw all the money you want to at education, but until we get some semblence of "family" who cares, nothing will get much better.
soricobob posted at 8:48 am on Mon, Jun 25, 2012.
You don't always "get what you paid for", but in this case you do!
davidflucier posted at 6:11 am on Mon, Jun 25, 2012.
Huppenthal, Shooter, and Kavanagh are part of the problem, not the solution.
Each of these Tea Party players are diametrically opposed to public education and have opposed every reasonable attempt to improve the system except to advance the rationale that smaller government is better government.
Instead of looking at the educational metrics of our state and asking themselves, "How can we take responsibility to improve it?", they have taken the ideologues way out and blamed "big government" and cut over $2 billion out the educational system...and then added back a few million as an affirmative defense for their irresponsible actions. It's totally disingenuous to cut BILLIONS and add back 10%.
The people of Arizona who want good education, good jobs, and good healthcare are being actively opposed by Tea Party extremists like Huppenthal, Shooter and Kavanagh.
BTW, if Kavanagh is that opposed to the government dole, why has he made a career out of publicly funded jobs and getting publicly funded pensions?
How is it that Huppenthal and Shooter have made careers out of holding government jobs?
Arizona Willie posted at 9:58 am on Sun, Jun 24, 2012.
As an example of the problems with education in the U.S.A. these days I present for your enjoyment:
http://tinyurl.com/6shmn5p
I would have expected the crash might have killed them but according to the headline writer who, unbelievably, will probably not get fired ... these people were killed AFTER the crash.
Which raises the question .... who killed them?
Not bad enough that they were in a plane crash -- somebody has to come along and kill them after the crash.
Mike McClellan posted at 5:49 pm on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
Regardless of how rankings on spending are done, the reality is Arizona tends to rank lower. That's a choice we voters make when we elect the representatives we do. And like Mesateacher above notes, unlike many states, we have a huge number of separate school districts, each with its own bureaucracy. This makes no sense, yet we voters -- when given a chance -- have historically chosen the status quo. With consolidation of small districts and folding elementary districts into high school districts -- the unified approach -- we'd cut down on bureaucratic costs at least.
However, let's not pretend that cutting the schools' budgets as dramatically as we have here in AZ has no effect on education. In my last years of teaching, I had 36 in College Prep Writing classes; ten years prior, I had an average of 27. When you are trying to give one on one help to 36 vs. 27 kids in class or by email, the difference in number does make a difference in the quality of instruction.
Last year, I volunteered with an elementary teacher who had 32 very needy 4th and 5th grade kids. How is she supposed to function effectively with that class size?
Worse, I've seen new and effective teachers figuratively throw up their hands and leave the profession. One newer teacher loved her job but could make much more as an ultrasound tech and have a life at home. We need to be concerned about the high number of younger teachers leaving the profession, and if the economy improves, that number could get even higher. If anyone thinks that budget cuts don't affect teacher morale, they're kidding themselves.
Just as they're kidding themselves if they believe that all we have to do is "cut the bureaucracy." Take Gilbert, for example. If GPS cut its entire administrative staff -- at the district and school level -- that would account for 6% of the overall budget. Yet the state has cut 12% of that district's budget over the last four years. So even if we eliminated every single administrator in Gilbert Public Schools, we'd still have to cut teachers.
We're doing some good things in AZ, including holding back third graders who are profoundly behind their peers in reading. But we should end social promotion at all levels. That would be a start.
mesateacher posted at 4:34 pm on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
We spend enough. We just don't spend it wisely. No one can every justify the city of Phoenix having 52 separate school districts. We spend vast amounts on buildings (Mesa!) and athletic facilities (Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler). We need a funding formula that allows money to be spent where it needs to go: into the classroom, not buildings. We need more vocational schools like EVIT. We need smaller classes especially in grades 1 - 8 so students are properly prepared for high school, which currently they are not.
As to Huppenthal's statement that we do better than average on testing. I wish I had the exact data at hand, but I don't. However, Arizona students have SAT, ACT scores in the upper 50% of states as I recall. But that doesn't matter. When only 30% of Az students go on to complete a 4-year degree, we've got problems.
Rational Human posted at 2:49 pm on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
In fact, if you compare Mexifornia to AZ at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/ you will see that AZ is ahead of Mexifornia and they outspend us on education. Of course they are going broke and we balance our budget.
Rational Human posted at 2:37 pm on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
Calif doesn't have much better results and they spend a lot more per student than we do. Of course they have a similar problem with many non English speaking students. Obviously spending more on education than any other state wont give us a noticeable increase in reading comprehension, and if you can't read you can't learn anything else. Maybe if we just put all the illegal aliens into one school we could buy all their books and teachers in Spanish. That way they wouldn't even have to know English. lol
Willie? You say "Our spending on education and results are complimentary. The results are an obvious reflection on the amount spent."? Did you even read the article? Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C spend the most per student yet have the worst performance.
Arizona Willie posted at 9:56 am on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
The Republicans always claim we are " throwing money at education " even though according to a new report the U.S. Census Bureau shows per pupil spending in Arizona at $7,848. That compares with $10,615 nationwide and puts the state ahead of only Idaho and Utah. Even Mississippi spends more per pupil than Arizona.
Obviously we must be throwing TONS of money at education ... NOT.
We spend less than all but two other states.
Put another way .. we spend MORE on education that 2 other states -- so to Republicans that constitutes throwing money at education. Unless we are on the very very bottom of the scale there is room for spending less.
Obviously spending less than 47 other states has given us the best education system in America. Yep, right, we rank near the bottom once again.
Our spending on education and results are complimentary. The results are an obvious reflection on the amount spent.
It's true that invading aliens weigh down the test scores.
But it's also true that I read in the paper the other day that teachers in Fountain Hills only get $28,000 dollars for their starting salary and for that they have to spend over $150,000 getting a bachelor's degree.
You can make more money as a clerk at Quick Trip.
Aren't you proud of our right wing Republican legislators, folks? They think paying a teacher $28,000 is ' THROWING MONEY ' at education.
ChillyWilly posted at 7:58 am on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
If you drained the illegal aliens out... it will be amazing on how the scores jump. Here is an interesting link.... http://www.azcentral.com/news/education/school-scores.php# Compare Tucson Unified with Scottsdale, Chandler, and Gilbert Schools.
Pat Mytush posted at 7:34 am on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
AZ is well below the national average in performance and Howard should act like a real journalist and question these political claims. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/
Rational Human posted at 6:59 am on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
“If per pupil funding were the most important factor, parents would be rushing to send their children to school in Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C.,” he said. “They have the highest per pupil funding in the nation. But they also have the worst performance.” There it is folks. Easy to see that throwing money at education will not give you better performance. I don't think our problem has anything to do with funding.
spyderdog posted at 1:33 am on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
Kavanagh has no business dictating anybodies education experience, nor should he be judging any the effectiveness of anything regarding education anywhere, ever ....... hes easily one of the worst teachers I ever had!
chuckles3 posted at 11:25 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
Hey Howard....how about a list of our ranking on standardized tests? Are we 48th?
How about if we remove the Spanish Speaking kids whom we have to teach proper Anglias from the test scores? You know, the hundreds of millions we are supposed to spend on kids who are taught to hate america as a racist country?
Please give some context to your story for the less astute.
Rational Human posted at 10:17 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
We also have the second highest number of illegal aliens per capita just under Mexifornia. Think they aren't impacting our education system?
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/peo_est_num_of_ill_imm_percap-number-illegal-immigrants-per-capita
Rational Human posted at 10:14 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
LOL. bblade50 no doubt is a product of the Arizona educational system.
bblade50 posted at 9:59 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
How can any public office-holder in this state claim we are obove national avg. We're 48th because like healthcare we cut education to make cuts in tax for the rich corperation adn the upper class in this state. We will be just like Iklkinois, Michigan and Nevada in a few years because of them. The most important resource in any state are the chrildren and their education. This is waht make state stronger in the furture.