Scottsdale Unified School District officials welcomed a recent ruling in Maricopa County Superior Court saying the Arizona Legislature has not lived up to its constitutional requirement to adequately fund schools around the state.
The suit champions poorer school districts with insufficient local wealth to cover expenses. Scottsdale Unified School District has struggled to balance its budgets in recent years, and some in leadership roles have talked about closing schools because of the lack of funding.
SUSD spokeswoman Kristine Harrington thanked voters for carrying the district through lean years by approving funding mechanisms like bonds and overrides while the Legislature failed to live up to its duties.
For instance, district voters passed a $229 million bond for facilities in 2016, which paid for repairs and entire rebuilds of several schools like Kiva and Pima Elementary Schools.
“While we cannot yet calculate the exact impact of the recent court ruling, we know that adequate funding is essential to maintaining the high-quality educational facilities our students deserve,” Harrington said in an email.” We are grateful to our Scottsdale Unified voters, who have consistently supported our schools and helped offset years of inadequate state funding. Their commitment ensures that our students come to school in buildings that are safe, secure and modernized with the technology necessary to reach educational excellence. This ruling helps ensure that the state meets its obligations for all districts in Arizona.”
Judge Dewaine Fox wrote in 114-page decision released Aug. 13 that schools around the state lack funding to provide everything from safe buildings to adequate equipment.
Fox said he intends to issue a permanent injunction requiring lawmakers to meet their financial obligations, according to a story by Arizona Capital Media.
Danny Adelman, director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest that filed the original lawsuit, estimates the Legislature owes somewhere between $6 billion and $7 billion, according to a story by Arizona Capital Media.
That includes more than just buildings, Adelman said. It includes things like technology, transportation and cooling and heating needs, he said.
However, some legislators have vowed to appeal the ruling, saying there is no constitutional requirement to fund everything listed in Fox’s findings.
Fox said the lack of funding isn’t just the Legislature’s fault, though. For instance, he noted at the beginning of the last budget year, the School Facilities District, which is responsible for funding construction and repairs, estimated that it needed more than $587 million to meet all the identified needs, but Gov. Katie Hobbs’s Department of Administration requested less than $222 million, according to a story by Arizona Capital Media.
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Keywords
Scottsdale Unified School District,
Scottsdale,
school funding,
Arizona Legislature