Arizona schools to sue state over funding – again

A year after voters passed Prop. 123 to resolve a $1.6 billion lawsuit over school funding, Arizona school districts are again taking the governor and Legislature to court. 

And this lawsuit is even larger.

Several school districts, education groups and parents on Monday will file a lawsuit alleging the state for nearly a decade shorted schools for capital funding for school maintenance, buses, textbooks and technology, the Arizona School Boards Association announced Friday.

School budget officials have estimated the cuts since 2009 total about $2 billion.

The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, which represented the school districts in the prior lawsuit, will file the lawsuit on behalf of the schools, according to the Arizona School Boards Association, which is among the plaintiffs.

Gov. Doug Ducey in his budget proposal included an additional $17 million to the School Facilities Board for building maintenance, but he rolled over hundreds of millions of dollars in annual cuts directly to schools for other school maintenance and soft capital such as technology.

Preliminary House budget documents proposed $63 million to the School Facilities Board. Budget negotiations continue.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas on Wednesday proposed boosting the Proposition 301 sales tax to bring in an additional $400 million a year and dedicate $50 million to $100 million of that to the School Facilities Board. 

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Glendale Elementary School District temporarily closed two schools last fall after the district found structural deficiencies that could pose safety risks for students and teachers. About 1,450 students were moved to other locations.

District administrators previously had expressed concerns about delayed maintenance of Glendale Elementary schools.

Round 2 of capital battle

State leaders have already fought — and lost — this legal battle once.

Districts sued the state over the same issue in 1994, successfully arguing that relying on local taxpayers to foot the bill via bonds to cover school-maintenance costs put schools in low-income areas at a disadvantage, violating the state Constitution's promise for a "general and uniform public school system."

A settlement agreement included $1.3 billion in one-time money to bring buildings to state standards, between $100 million and $200 million annually for building maintenance and about $200 million a year to schools for soft capital.

But since then, governors and the Legislature have slowly whittled away the program.

In 2009, then-Gov. Jan Brewer and the Legislature started cutting soft capital and building maintenance, blaming the Great Recession. But the cuts continued after the recession ended under both Brewer and Ducey, including for this school year.

Struggling to get by

Currently, school districts are getting about 15 percent of what they were initially told they would get each year in what's called District Additional Assistance; charter schools are receiving about 85 percent in Charter Additional Assistance.

Glendale Elementary School District Assistant Superintendent Mike Barragan has said district schools are supposed to receive about $450 for every elementary school student and $490 for every high school student to be used on capital expenses.

"In reality, we are looking at $40," he said earlier this year. "Since 2009, Glendale has been reduced by $29 million in capital funding."

Districts are paying for much of their infrastructure costs with voter-approved bonds. And that creates a disparity between districts in higher-income areas and those in lower-income areas, the attorneys for the districts have said. Lower-income areas don't have the tax base to sell as many bonds.

Douglas in a statement said she knew capital funding was "a looming crisis" and that's why she included it in her Prop. 301 proposal. Douglas didn't have a timeline for when she wants Prop. 301 on the ballot.

She has said she wants to work through the Legislature, which likely wouldn't happen before next year. 

"My hope is that the schools will receive the resources they so desperately need and this will be resolved without going to court," Douglas said. "If it doesn’t get resolved, the only winners in this case will be the lawyers."

Ducey's budget proposal included no restoration of funds to the Additional Assistance fund for schools to use on soft capital.

Ducey and the Legislature gave the School Facilities Board $15 million for this school year. School districts can apply to the board for funding for repairs to things like buildings, roofs or air-conditioners.

Ducey spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said the Governor's Office was reserving comment until they have a chance to take a detailed look at the lawsuit Monday. 

"Our focus right now is on passing a budget that increases K-12 spending, including for school capital and construction," Scarpinato said. 

Scarpinato earlier this year said the Governor's Office didn't believe a lawsuit over capital funding is in the best interest of Arizona schools.

"What we saw with the last issue on inflation was that the lawsuit created a paralysis around the issue of dollars for education," he said then. 

House Speaker J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, also declined to weigh in until he sees the allegations detailed in the filing.

"I've heard speculation of a capital-funding lawsuit," Mesnard said. "My reaction to that is we are funding school construction, and building renewal, in this budget, and we funded it last year."

Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed to this article.