Before the state legislature passed a budget slashing education funding, Representative Chester Crandell, R-Heber, former superintendent of the Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology, had already been working on a proposal to change the public school funding system.
On April 12, Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill sponsored by Crandell that establishes a joint legislative study committee to examine funding of K-12 public schools. The 13-member committee will be investigating ways to base the system on student achievement rather than instructional hours.
Crandell explained that the change would give local districts more control over their operation and methods.
“We need to get control back at the local level,” he said.
Under the current funding system, which was established in 1980, schools receive state funding based on a formula that includes the number of students and the number of instructional hours. It was designed to ensure that districts throughout the state receive approximately the same amount per pupil regardless of property values.
The legislation creating the outcome based study committee requires the group to create legislation to be considered by lawmakers next year. A summary of the bill notes that among its provisions it “requires the committee to develop legislation for consideration during the 50th Legislature, Second Regular Session, designed to transition public school funding from a system based on instructional hours to a system based on student achievement, and specifies the legislation must include the following considerations: how the current voter-approved revenue sources and spending requirements will interact with the proposed system, and the entities who will be responsible for determining the student outcomes on which the proposed system will be based.”
An emergency clause was included in the bill creating the committee so that it went into effect as soon as the governor signed it. The committee has until Dec. 31 to submit a report and make recommendations on changes to the current funding system.
Crandell noted, “I’d love to see this legislation repeal some of the education statutes that tie the hands of school boards and concurrently provide a dedicated funding source. The intent is to make such a proposal revenue neutral.”
If legislation were approved as envisioned by Crandell, it would not change the total amount of money available to the state to spend on education, but would instead change the distribution among school districts. Funding cuts due to state budget problems would not necessarily be reinstated. Such cuts are likely to remain in place until the economy improves.
