Budget omission could devastate some Arizona school districts

PHOENIX — An apparent oversight in the Arizona state budget could require some school districts to pay back millions of dollars received for district-sponsored charter schools.

The budget was approved earlier this year.

Debbi Burdick, superintendent of the Cave Creek Unified School District said
the mistake by lawmakers could cost her district “at least over $9 million”
and would leave it bankrupt.

However, state Department of Education spokesman Charles Tack said Monday that
affected districts wouldn’t have to repay the money right away so there’s time
during the 2016 legislative session to address the issue.

The issue arose as a result of a budget provision in which cash-strapped
lawmakers phased out supplemental funding for district-sponsored charter
schools.

Lawmakers said they intended that the affected schools be exempt from a
repayment requirement already in state law but that they didn’t put it in
writing, the Arizona Capitol Times reported.

“We just physically left that sentence out of this year’s budget. And it was
never the intent to punish them,” Rep. Heather Carter,
R-Cave Creek, said.

“If we don’t get that fixed, it’s almost to the
point of bankruptcy for these school districts,”

Carter said she’ll ask Gov. Doug Ducey to include the issue in the agenda if he
calls lawmakers into special session.

Chuck Essigs, director of governmental relations for the Arizona Association of
School Board Officials, said he was surprised by the omission because school
officials were told by lawmakers that districts wouldn’t be penalized.

Cave Creek Unified converted four of its seven schools to district-sponsored
charters, and Burdick said it could be hit hard.

“They didn’t put in a hold-harmless clause, which means they would expect us
all to pay all the money back that we had ever received. I don’t believe that is
their intention, but somebody forgot,” he said.

Besides Cave Creek Unified, other districts that reaped additional state
funding by converting schools to charters included Vail Unified, Benson Unified,
Payson Unified, Fort Thomas Unified and Casa Grande Union High School District.

Vail Unified’s superintendent, Calvin Baker, said he hasn’t yet calculated how
much the Legislature’s omission could cost his district.

“We haven’t done that calculation yet, but it would be a number we would
literally not be able to pay,” he said.