by Jason Bedrick | Aug 8, 2025 | Opinion
By Jason Bedrick & Matthew Ladner |
Every year, a horde of school district officials and their lobbyists come before the state legislature, rattling their tin cups, begging for more money for their supposedly underfunded schools. They tell sob stories about crumbling buildings and underpaid teachers who had to pay for school supplies from their own pockets. Their schools, they say, are financially starved.
Hogwash.
School bureaucrats don’t want you to know it, but school spending is at an all-time high, and Arizona’s school districts are sitting on more than $20 billion in cash reserves and buildings they don’t need while student achievement craters. A new report from the Common Sense Institute (CSI) reveals the shocking scope of waste plaguing our traditional public school system, and it’s time taxpayers demanded answers.
The numbers are staggering. As has been documented, Arizona’s school districts are already hoarding $7.8 billion in cash reserves, up $1 billion since the prior fiscal year. Now we learn they’re also sitting on $12.2 billion worth of excess real estate—78 million square feet of unused and underutilized space that could house 630,000 additional students. Combined, that’s over $20 billion in resources that could be put to better use serving Arizona’s children.
Since 2019, district school enrollment has declined 5% statewide, yet these same districts increased their building space by 3% and boosted capital spending by a jaw-dropping 67% to $8.9 billion. As CSI has documented, districts have added 499 new buildings while losing 47,500 students. This isn’t just inefficient, it’s fiscally reckless.
The massive spending on new buildings might be justifiable if schools were overcrowded or expecting a huge influx of new students, but they’re not. In fact, Arizona’s district schools are already significantly overbuilt, operating at just 67% capacity while charter schools run at 95% capacity and private schools at 75%. CSI estimates that the excess space in district schools could accommodate 630,000 additional students—nearly half the current statewide district school enrollment.
The excess capacity comes at an enormous cost. CSI estimates that the market value of excess district space alone—$12.2 billion—could fund a decade of capital expenditures. Alternatively, eliminating maintenance costs for unused space would save taxpayers $1 billion annually. That’s real money that could reduce taxes, improve education, or address Arizona’s other pressing needs.
There are plenty of willing buyers. Indeed, the fastest-growing school systems—charters and private schools chosen by increasing numbers of Arizona families—struggle to find adequate facilities. Yet school districts often go to incredible lengths to avoid selling buildings to them, such as when Tucson Unified School District sold an unused building for 25% less than what a Christian school had offered, just so that a “competitor” wouldn’t have it.
In response to such cases, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law requiring school districts to sell buildings to the highest bidder, even if it’s a private or charter school. Now, rather than comply, school districts are just letting their underutilized space languish and forcing the taxpayers to pay the bill.
The wastefulness is also a slap in the face to teachers and students alike.
As we noted previously, the districts have enough cash reserves to raise the average teacher pay from $64,420 to more than $80,000 for 10 years and still have funds left over. If they sold off all their underutilized space, they could raise the average teacher pay to $100,000 for a decade and still have billions left over.
There is no evidence that spending on buildings is contributing to student learning. As the buildings have gone up, math scores have gone down, plummeting 25% since 2019. As CSI documents, the lowest-performing schools have the most excess space, operating at just 19% capacity, while high-performing schools run at 70% capacity.
This isn’t about helping kids learn; it’s about protecting a bloated bureaucracy that puts institutional self-interest above student needs.
Fixing the problem will require realigning incentives. CSI recommends more transparency—including a “Facilities Condition Index” that would give policymakers and the public objective information about the quality of existing school facilities—and more state oversight of severely underutilized facilities. In the meantime, any funding requests from the school districts should be greeted by state lawmakers with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Arizona’s children deserve better than a $20 billion monument to government inefficiency. They deserve a system that puts their education first, not one that hoards resources while performance plummets. If local officials can’t or won’t deliver, then state lawmakers will have to step in.
Jason Bedrick is a Research Fellow and Matthew Ladner is a Senior Advisor for education policy implementation at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.
by Jonathan Eberle | Apr 12, 2025 | Education, News
By Jonathan Eberle |
A bill designed to direct more tax revenue toward Arizona’s K-12 classrooms has been vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs, prompting criticism from Republican lawmakers who say the measure would have strengthened public education funding.
SB 1050, sponsored by Senator Vince Leach (R-LD17), sought to amend the Government Property Lease Excise Tax (GPLET) program by prohibiting the abatement of school district-designated tax revenues. Under current law, cities and towns can lease government-owned property to private developers with reduced tax obligations, an incentive intended to promote commercial development.
The bill would have excluded school-related tax revenues from such incentives, allowing those funds to flow directly to local school districts instead of being waived under development agreements.
“This was a missed opportunity by the Governor,” said Leach. “She says she supports education funding, but her veto suggests otherwise.”
In her veto letter, Governor Hobbs explained that SB 1050 could “stunt Arizona’s economic development” by weakening a tool used by local governments to attract private investment. The GPLET program, though controversial, has been credited with revitalizing parts of urban Arizona by lowering upfront development costs in exchange for long-term gains.
Arizona schools continue to face funding pressures despite recent increases to the state’s education budget. Republican lawmakers have often pushed for reallocating existing tax revenues, while Democrats have generally sought new funding sources or changes to the state’s tax structure.
SB 1050 passed both legislative chambers before being vetoed, signaling at least some bipartisan concern about the balance between development incentives and education funding.
Senator Leach and other supporters of the bill may pursue similar legislation in future sessions or attempt a veto override, although success would require significant bipartisan support. Meanwhile, the broader debate over how to equitably fund Arizona’s public schools is likely to continue.
“This is about priorities,” Leach said. “We should be making sure our tax dollars are going to classrooms, not corporate subsidies.”
The Governor’s office has not indicated whether alternative proposals to increase school funding through tax reforms are in the works.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Jan 31, 2025 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
School funding is a hot topic at the Arizona Legislature as the 57th Regular Session prepares to launch into its second month.
Arizona lawmakers and the Governor’s Office are wrestling over the looming expiration date for Proposition 123, which has helped fund the state’s K-12 schools since it was established under the previous Ducey administration.
One legislator in particular, Senator J.D. Mesnard, noted this deadline in the weekly newsletter published by Arizona Senate Republicans, saying, “With a new session comes a new opportunity to work on bills that may not have reached the finish line in the year prior. As such, I’m again working on a Proposition 123 extension plan to send to the ballot. This measure was first approved by voters in 2016. It allows a larger percentage from the state land trust to be distributed to our K-12 schools. Prop. 123 is set to expire this summer. With this in mind, Republicans backfilled the money allocated each year to K-12 schools within the last state budget, nearly $300 million, so there are no disruptions to this funding stream.”
Mesnard added, “The new Prop. 123 I’m proposing would be additional dollars on top of what we backfilled. My colleagues and I would like this money to go directly to teacher pay raises, with a goal of each educator receiving an additional $4,000 annually. I will keep you posted on the progress of Proposition 123 as well as other commonsense legislation that will hopefully receive the Governor’s signature.”
In Governor Katie Hobbs’ recent State of the State address, she touched on the vital importance of Prop 123, saying, “We must address the impending expiration of Prop 123, which provides critical funding for public schools and teachers. Renewing it is essential. If we fail to act, we are throwing away an opportunity to fund teacher pay raises and give Arizona’s children the opportunity they deserve – all without raising taxes on a single Arizonan. When Prop 123 originally passed, it was a bipartisan success and proved that Republicans and Democrats could come together and do the right thing for our students, teachers, and parents. So let’s put our kids first again and provide the certainty they and our schools need. Let’s address the Aggregate Expenditure Limit to make sure schools stay open. Let’s pass a Prop 123 extension to fund our schools without raising taxes.”
Following the Governor’s speech to both chambers of the Arizona Legislature, Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope offered one of the Republican responses to her proposal. He said, “We will take action to equip our K-12 schools with quality educators at the front of every classroom by using a Proposition 123 renewal to increase teacher pay above the national average.”
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has also weighed in on the Prop 123 debate. Earlier this month, he posted, “We must renew Prop 123 and increase the income from the land trust, which is overflowing with money, to increase teacher salaries.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Dr. Thomas Patterson | Jan 6, 2025 | Opinion
By Dr. Thomas Patterson |
What accounts for the differences in academic achievement between inner-city poverty area schools and high-income public schools? We‘ve all heard of the dreadful schools in cities like Chicago and Baltimore with no children in the entire school able to achieve even baseline levels of competence in math or verbal skills and many other schools with a third at most achieving at grade level.
Many would assume funding is the major determinant, but the facts don’t back that up. American public schools have traditionally been funded by local property taxes, which provide a clear advantage to the wealthy. But that was then. Today, education funding is complex, with federal funding for special programs, equalization formulas, and other inputs making it difficult for even experts to determine the bottom line.
A recent study from the Urban Institute confirmed other research showing that “when considering federal, state and local funding,” all states but three “allocate more per student funding to poor kids than to non-poor kids.” Moreover, researchers from Harvard and Stanford found that each extra $1,000 per pupil spending is associated with an annual gain in achievement of 1/10 of one percent of a standard deviation. In other words, more spending and more learning are essentially unrelated.
If more spending did produce more achievement, we would be morally obligated to provide it. As it is, we must look for other reasons to explain the achievement gap, examining how well the allocated funds are used. Education researcher Jay Greene observes that “wasteful schools tend to hire more non-instructional staff while raising the pay and benefits for all staff regardless of their contribution to student outcomes.”
Effective schools, whenever possible, prioritize the learning interests of students, eschewing the fads and misconceptions that plague the public school establishment. When a Stanford education professor helpfully developed an “equity-based” curriculum proposal, gullible California educators issued guidance against students taking algebra courses before high school.
After decades of the promotion of “context-based” reading instruction, it became obvious that the old-fashioned phonics instruction produced better readers. The Columbia University center that pushed context-based instruction was finally closed in 2023.
The devastating COVID closures demanded by the teachers’ unions disproportionately affected low-income public school students. The closures lasted longer and caused more learning loss for poor students than for those in private schools and more upscale districts.
The different, more “lenient” treatment afforded to low-income kids is evident also in the cellphone bans proliferating in the schools. Educators are suddenly realizing, after 20 years or so, that daily staring at a small screen bearing social media messages is not healthy for the developing brain.
According to advisories from the Surgeon General, UNESCO, and others, adolescent cell phone usage impairs academic achievement by distracting students’ attention from classroom instruction. Chronic cell phone overuse is also isolating and interferes with normal social development. Widespread cell phone use is associated with higher rates of teenage depression and suicide.
Eight states and many school districts have imposed cell phone bans, and others, including Arizona, are considering legislation. But there are objections. Parents feel the need to “keep in touch” with their children. Phones are also needed to locate friends in the lunchroom (yes, really). More seriously, parents worry about not having contact in a school shooting, even though the chances of any student encountering even one during their entire school life is vanishingly small.
The bigger problem is that legislative cell phone bans are typically so loose and riddled with exceptions that they are practically useless. California, with great fanfare from Governor Gavin Newsom, passed a bill that only required schools to “adopt a policy limiting or prohibiting smart phones by July 2026.” Any school with even an insignificant modification in cell phone usage would be legally in compliance, and enforcement would be a snap. Helicopter parents would still be in business. Florida’s ban is limited to classroom time only.
Private schools and high-end public schools pushed ahead with their own rules, which typically are more comprehensive and tightly written. Strict, uniform restrictions are easier for both teachers and students to understand. Meanwhile, poor students once again are saddled with misdirected compassion and low expectations.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
by Terri Jo Neff | Aug 18, 2021 | Education, News
By Terri Jo Neff |
Starting this Friday, low-income families with K-12 students will be able to apply online for up to $7,000 in immediate relief to support educational opportunities which will close the achievement gap and better equip underserved students.
Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday an initial $10 million investment for Arizona’s COVID-19 Educational Recovery Benefit program. The funding – on a first come, first serve basis – will provide choice for families facing financial and educational barriers due to unnecessary closures and school mandates which do not comply with state law.
“Our COVID-19 Educational Recovery Benefit will empower parents to exercise their choice when it comes to their child’s education and COVID-19 mitigation strategies,” Ducey said. “It will also give families in need the opportunity to access educational resources like tutoring, child care, transportation and other needs.”
According to the governor’s office, Ducey has been working for weeks to create an additional program to provide more education options for families.
Eligible families can have a total household income up to 350 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. In addition, applicants must demonstrate the student’s current school is isolating, quarantining, or subjecting children to physical in-school COVID-19 constraints such as mask mandates or preferential treatment of vaccinated students.
“We know that historically disadvantaged communities bear the brunt of excessive and overbearing measures, and we want to ensure these students are protected,” Ducey said.
The COVID-19 Educational Recovery Benefit program has the full support of Senate President Karen Fann and House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
“Educators, families and state leaders are working hard to get students back on track, and the Educational Recovery Benefit program will make sure kids have every opportunity to grow and thrive,” said Fann.
Bowers noted the desire to keep children “safe, healthy, and achieving” during the pandemic, adding that with the new program, “we can do it all at the same time.”
Grant applications can be submitted starting Friday. Additional information is available at https://arizonatogether.org/educationalrecoverybenefit/
