Report: Yuma schools spend less on instruction

  Yuma County school districts are spending less than the state and national average in the classroom, according to the state auditor general's office.
 
 A report this week said Crane Elementary School District spent 55.8 cents of every dollar received on direct instruction, while District 1 spent 51.9 cents and Yuma Union High School District spent 56.5 cents. The most recent figures show the average Arizona school spends 57.9 cents, which compares with 61.2 cents nationwide.

  District 1 wants to spend more money in the classroom but there are valid reasons why it is less, said Kerry Jones, District 1 chief financial officer. He said that food service costs in Arizona are greater than the national average.

  "We have a higher population of low-income students on the free and reduced lunch program so we feed more students and that dilutes your pie," Jones said. "With higher facilities costs, we spend 2.5 percent more than the national average and guess what, it comes out of the classroom."

  Also, District 1 is 2,200 square miles or 1-1/2 times the size of Rhode
Island, Jones said. That translates to higher transportation costs and takes away from the classroom as well.

  And District 1 spends 8.5 percent for student support services, versus just 7.3 percent in Arizona and 5.2 percent nationally. Some of that amount is in part owing to the Safe Schools Healthy Student grant.

  "Do we want to eliminate those programs to hire more teachers?" Jones asked. "Some of it has to do with counseling students. Those are important dollars, too. If we had more dollars, we'd put it into the classroom but we've got to meet the basics, maintenance and pay the electric bill." 

  Richard Faidley, Yuma Union High School District associate superintendent, said that Arizona is 49th in the nation on the amount it spends on education per pupil so there would be few options for cutting expenses. Also, expenses, such as utilities in the lower desert tend to be higher than other areas of the state.

  And with the booming growth of Yuma, there has been an increase in student population, creating higher maintenance and operation costs, he said.

  Also, there are a number of unfunded mandates from the Arizona Department of Education, he said. Increases in reporting responsibilities assigned to individual districts and requirements to attend trainings in Phoenix increase travel and hotel expenses, which also take away from the classroom.

  Gov. Janet Napolitano wants more than half of the state's school districts to explain why they are spending less than the national average of dollars in the classroom.

  Napolitano said she is not suggesting that local administrators and school board members are wasting money. And she said some districts, because of special circumstances, will always have high nonclassroom costs.

  The governor said, though, she and her staff may be able to use examples from schools that beat the national average to suggest ideas to those who lag.

  The governor said her call simply reignites a challenge to school officials she made in 2003, shortly after taking office, to move a nickel of every dollar in state education funding from outside the classroom to direct instructional costs, including teacher salaries, supplies and textbooks.

  Napolitano said Wednesday that initiative shifted more than $100 million into classroom spending.

  "When you actually start looking at food service contracts, maintenance contracts, bus service contracts for schools, energy contracts, there are places where schools around the state ... have achieved some real savings, which then they were able to put those dollars into other purposes,'' Napolitano said.

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School district / % 07 money in instruction
Arizona average / 57.9%
National average* / 61.2%
* from 2005, most recent figures available

Components of Arizona average:

Area / Arizona / Nationwide
Classroom instruction / 57.9% / 61.2%
Plant operation and maintenance / 11.3% / 9.6%
Administration / 9.5% / 11.0%
Student support / 7.3% / 5.2%
Instruction support / 4.8% / 4.8%
Food service / 4.7% / 3.9%
Transportation / 4.3% / 4.1%
Other / 0.2% / 0.2%

Selected Arizona Districts
Crane Elementary / 55.8%
Flagstaff Unified / 58.5%
Gadsden Elementary / 50.5%
Mesa Unified / 62.1%
Tempe Elementary / 55.4%
Tempe Union / 59.7%
Tucson Unified / 54.3%
Yuma Elementary / 51.9%
Yuma Union / 56.5%

Source: Auditor General's Office

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William Roller can be reached at wroller@yumasun.com or 539-6858. Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services contributed to this report.