Arizona ranks 49th in the country when it comes to school funding and little progress has been made to improve those conditions, which is something many other states around the country are also experiencing, according to a yearly report.
“Policymakers in these states must do more to improve funding fairness by increasing the effort they make to raise revenue and revising the way in which funding is distributed among districts,” the Education Law Center said in the report, naming Arizona as one of nine “poorly funded, inequitable, low effort” states.
The data shows that from 2020 to 2021, U.S. public school enrollment declined in all 50 states with Arizona experiencing one of the sharpest declines at just over 6%.
Arizona also experienced a decrease in local revenue for schools.
Per-pupil funding increased just slightly from 2020 to 2021, up 0.2%. However, Arizona remained at the bottom of the pack, rising from the last spot to the second-to-last spot.
The data also determined that the poverty rate of school-aged children was at 16% in Arizona.
The study gave Arizona letter grades for funding level (F), funding distribution (C), and funding effort (F), showing our state barely made the grade in all three categories.
Overall, the Education Law Center found that the data showed that “school funding across the states remained stubbornly consistent,” highlighting a continued need for policy changes and efforts to improve school funding.
See the full 2023 report here.
