Arizona near bottom in per pupil spending, federal survey shows
Arizona once again ranks near the bottom in per-pupil spending on public school students, according to data from an annual U.S. Census Bureau survey.
Out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., Arizona ranked 49th and spent about $10,300 per student during the 2021-22 school year, the most recent year for which survey data is available. That trails more than $5,000 behind the national average.
Only Utah and Idaho spent less money per pupil than Arizona, according to the Annual Survey of School System Finances. Arizona's rank did not change from the prior year.
The news came as no surprise to Paul Tighe, the executive director of Arizona School Administrators, a nonprofit that supports school superintendents. Great Recession-era cuts to education have never been restored, he said.
"We haven't really moved the needle," Tighe said. "A lot of work needs to be done."
Even so, Arizona's spending increased by about $700, or 7%, over the previous school year. That followed a national trend in which temporary pandemic-related federal funding boosted the per-pupil spending average by nearly 9%.
School leaders cautioned that future surveys will likely show Arizona's spending snap right back to pre-pandemic levels now that those relief dollars have dried up, resulting in fewer positions and programs.
"We're starving a system and then looking at (public schools) for not hitting the goals that society expects us to meet," said Marisol Garcia, the president of statewide teachers union Arizona Education Association. Policymakers year after year ask for schools to deliver more but don't provide commensurate financial support, she said.
Garcia said the state's consistently low education spending negatively impacts both students and teachers. She pointed to low per-pupil spending as a major contributing factor to the state's teacher retention challenges.
Schools in the northeast fared the best in the survey, with all nine states placing in the nation's top 15. New York took the top spot with nearly $30,000 spent per student.
Meanwhile, 16 of the bottom 20 were located in the South or West. Utah ranked last with less than $9,600 spent per pupil.
"There's been no focused, bipartisan effort to address these issues" in Arizona, Garcia said. "Other states have tried to address them and continue to address them, so they continue to move up, and we continue to stay stale at the bottom."
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Reach the reporter at nicholas.sullivan@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona again near bottom in per pupil spending, federal survey shows
