Iranian militants held American embassy staff hostage for the entire year. The United States boycotted the Olympics. Ronald Reagan became the 40^th President of the United States in the November election. These were some of the memorable events of 1980.

The youth of America were still a year away from hearing the phrase “I want my MTV,” and the Oldsmobile Cutlass was the nation’s best-selling automobile. This was also the last time Arizona policymakers substantially updated the K-12 finance formula.

The time has come to modernize the formula again.

Arizona educators have accomplished a great deal under the 1980 formula. The K-12 student population has grown from less than to more than. During the past 40 years, our state has simultaneously improved the quality of the education system and quantity of high performing schools.

But similar to the Oldsmobile Cutlass, however, Arizona’s school finance system has become increasingly antiquated. By enrolling in different public schools, an Arizona student can generate wildly different K-12 funding amounts. The same student could change public schools in Arizona but receive only a fraction of the public funding his or her previous school received. It is time for Arizona policymakers to finish the job of equalizing education funding.

Formula Served an Important Purpose at the Time: Advancing Equity

Arizona largely equalized school funding in 1980 by mandating an equal level of local property taxes in every school district and creating a single operational formula built around weights for individual student needs. Previously, both tax rates and operational spending levels were discretionary and differed significantly based on the wealth of the local school district. Arizona was one of many states compelled by court actions to reform their finance formulas to ensure the learning opportunities for poor students were not shortchanged by virtue of their zip code.

Inequities Crept Back In After 1980

The 1980 effort went a long way toward equalization, but because it kept open multiple avenues for local jurisdictions to add to their school budgets through additional primary and secondary tax levies, inequities in district resources have.

states: “No law shall be enacted granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens or corporations.” Despite this provision and the 1980 reforms, today the best funded Arizona district generates six times as much revenue per pupil as the lowest funded district. With no automatic or mandatory review of the formula required of the state Legislature, these inequities have continued to grow. This state of affairs does not adhere to the constitutional principle of equal privileges and immunities.

Formula Was Created for a Different System

The 1980 formula revisions sought to replace local discretion for school taxing and spending with a state equalized effort centered on individual students. It was a massive, two-year effort and disrupted a great deal of tradition and ease of practice for wealthier school districts but resulted in an outcome closer to the “general and uniform” requirements of the state constitution.

However, that formula was created to serve a school system where the vast majority of students attended the local school assigned to them. Students today are far more mobile, and public- school enrollment relies far more on attracting students than simple proximity.

In 1994, the Arizona Legislature enacted two policies that have greatly accelerated the move away from assigned schools: the creation of public charters schools and an open enrollment system.

Public charter schools do not operate with any particular jurisdiction; in effect, their “local district” is the state of Arizona. Public charter schools are unable to levy local property taxes; their public funding for maintenance, operations, and capital comes exclusively from the state. Arizona’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee in total public funding.

Arizona lawmakers also required districts to pass an open enrollment policy, enabling students to attend the public school of their choice within or outside of their assigned school district, tuition free.

Today, Arizona charter schools serve approximately 20% of public-school students and have taken the lead in accommodating state enrollment growth. Attendance in “out of boundary” public schools, however, is the most common form of school choice, with district schools both gaining and losing students through open enrollment..

The combination of district open enrollment, charter enrollment and private/homeschooling has resulted in a majority of students attending schools other than their zoned district school. As the percentage of students attending the school in their assigned district declines, the justification for local tax support versus statewide tax support erodes.

After nearly 30 years, charter schools are an integral part of Arizona’s public-school system and their funding should be integrated into the overall school finance formula.

Arizona policymakers should consider the successful practice of other states in funding students with special needs, such as those with disabilities and English Learners, to reflect the level of services required rather than an arbitrary amount of funding associated with a diagnosis. Weights relating to schools, such as additional funding for rural communities and rewards for academic success should be incorporated into the funding formula and provided to schools on a neutral formulaic basis.

Outmoded Formula Creates Inequities for Taxpayers, Too

Zip codes no longer determine a child’s public school but still heavily influence the level of resources their school receives.

In the past, both homeowners and local businesses were taxed to support the education of students in their neighborhoods. Now, they increasingly find themselves being taxed to pay for the education of students attending schools elsewhere, or who are receiving their education online. Place-based taxes for mobile students have made less and less sense over time.

For example, the formula for school transportation only applies to students who attend district schools. This means Arizona households pay school transportation taxes, but many students, including the majority of students in Maricopa County, receive no benefit from it.

Arizona school buses still largely transport children within their zoned attendance boundary as they did in 1993. Families using other public-school options must currently fend for themselves. Governor Doug Ducey’s Executive Budget proposal recognizes the importance of this long-neglected equity issue by providing transportation assistance to district open enrollment students and charter students.

Similarly, the disconnect between school district construction bonding and student attendance patterns has contributed to a glut of underutilized space in many districts —. This effectively stunts the growth of our most-in-demand schools and leaves many waitlisted students shut out of their first-choice school.

Modernization Essential to Improve Equity

A school finance system suited to Arizona’s needs would collect all school taxes and distribute them on an equitable, per-student basis according to a single statewide formula. The tax obligation for education should be shared equitably among taxpayers, and revenues should be allocated to the public school that students attend, rather than to a local taxing authority. Inequities for taxpayers and schools alike would be minimized by replacing district bonds and override elections with a system of increased state funding. Districts carrying facility debt should retain a local tax for the purpose of retiring preexisting debt during a transition period.

With individual success tied to greater levels of attainment, the state’s economic future is tied to education. Arizona’s fundamental interest in educating its children does not vary by which public school they attend.

We cannot expect Arizona to be competitive today using the 1980s playbook. The time has come to address funding inequities squarely and to modernize Arizona’s outdated funding formula for the needs of the 21^st Century.

Public funding systems for public education should arise from statewide support and be focused directly on students. �鶹��ýӳ��ade a strong start in this direction in 1980, charting a pathway followed by many states thereafter. What was once a visionary formula has gone the way of the 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass. We can – we must – set a new and better standard in student funding once again.

Dr. Matthew Ladner is the director of the Arizona Center for Student Opportunity

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Black students in Arizona rank near the top in the nation for posting academic gains year after year, and those who attend charter schools may appear to have a competitive edge, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Arizona Center for Student Opportunity. 

“There’s actually good news about the education of African American students here in Arizona that is underrecognized,” said Matthew Ladner, director of the center that was launched earlier this year by the nonprofit Arizona Charter Schools Association to continue to improve academic achievement and opportunity at charter schools in the state. 

But whether parents choose a district, charter or online school for their children, one thing is clear: Arizona is doing something right, Ladner said. 

All students have bested nation

In fact, students of all colors in Arizona have outperformed the nation consistently for academic gains over the past decade, with Black students showing some of the biggest gains, he said.  

That doesn’t mean challenges don’t remain. There’s still an achievement gap with Blacks lagging behind their White peers.

“It’s not to say the problem is solved, but we’ve made a lot of progress in Arizona compared to other places,” he said. “In other states, you see the exact opposite — where things aren’t only bad, they’re getting worse.”

Don’t-fence-me-in policy works 

Ladner believes Arizona’s “don’t fence me in” policies are making the difference. Unlike most states, students in Arizona can attend schools outside their assigned school district boundaries. 

Arizona was one of the first states to offer open enrollment in 1994. Today, it’s widely used by parents statewide. For example, 4,000 of Scottsdale Unified School District’s 22,000 students last year were from out of the district’s geographic boundaries, Ladner said.  

Arizona also has more charter schools than most states. Today, charter school students make up nearly 20 percent of the public school population in the state with 213,000 students and 573 schools.

These policies have made schools more competitive and are benefiting students, particularly low-income Black and Latino students, Ladner said.  

How Arizona stacks up 

To measure how Black students in Arizona are stacking up against the rest of the country, Ladner analyzed standardized test and other data over the past decade from the Arizona Department of Education, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, and the Nation’s Report Card.

Among his findings:

-Over the last decade, Arizona stands as one of the few states demonstrating academic gains year after year among all students, including low-income Black students.

-In 2019, Black students ranked fourth in the nation for academic gains in eighth-grade math, compared to their peers in other states, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress. 

– Maricopa County has one of the highest rates for academic gains for Black students in the country among large urban areas. Last year, the rate of growth was 13 percent above the national average in 2019, according to the .

-Black charter school students in Arizona have seen higher academic gains than the state average in math and English Language Arts on the test since it was implemented in 2015. They also performed better than their district school counterparts. 

Arizona is national model 

It’s clear that Black families in Arizona are benefiting from the wide range of educational options in the state, Ladner said. While more needs to be done to narrow the achievement gap for students of color, Arizona is making ground. 

“This process of allowing people freedom for flexibility, to seek out the best school to meet their needs is helping everyone academically including black students.”

For more information about the association and charter schools in Arizona, visit

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Arizona students with disabilities faced glaring achievement gaps on every measure long before the pandemic shutdown. But now our state has the chance to and reimagine learning for students with disabilities.

Arizona’s new state agenda should include the following five actions.

1. Dispel Myths and Raise Expectations

Most special education students have no cognitive impairments that would prevent them from reaching the same level of learning as other students. Yet these students consistently experience heartbreaking academic outcomes fueled by misperceptions and low expectations.

 Steps for Policymakers

●   The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) should identify all the goals and metrics used to monitor the state’s progress toward improving outcomes for all students. This process should include all federal reporting and result in a public-facing annual report. Further, the data should be broken out by disability.

●   To begin a statewide conversation that addresses existing shortcomings, the Arizona Superintendent of Instruction should deliver an annual State of Special Education report to the State Board of Education, the Legislature, and the Governor’s Office.

 2. Expand Innovation at the School Level

Arizona is making encouraging strides toward expanding innovation at the school level. H.B. 2448 introduced this past session could help give schools the flexibility they need to redesign learning for all students. Governor Ducey has also established $1 million for through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund. targeted their proposals to the support of their students with disabilities. The applications reflected two very different schools with very different approaches, yet both held the same commitment to a robust research agenda that can spur replication.

Steps for Policymakers

●       Pass Representative Michelle Udall’s H.B. 2448 to give schools the flexibility they need to implement new student-centered programs and strategies.

●       Future state grant funding should include grants dedicated to better serving students with disabilities. Likewise, the federal government can include incentives in new funding sources to stimulate innovation in special education.

3. Fund Students, Not Disabilities

Arizona’s current K-12 education funding formula assumes students with disabilities are evenly distributed throughout the state. However, our state’s robust school choice environment means some schools have more students with disabilities than others. It’s also troublesome that Arizona’s special education funding formula does not recognize the diversity of students’ disabilities and overlooks the true costs of serving them. Our state weights its per-pupil funding based on diagnosis. This archaic approach assumes all students with a certain disability need identical services and supports. Moreover, the funding weights are woefully behind in covering the actual costs schools incur. 

Steps for Policymakers

●       Education funding should follow students to the schools which are serving them.

●       The state should fund students based on the services and levels of intensity they need to succeed rather than a disability label.

4. Benchmark Progress Toward Postsecondary Goals

Closing the achievement gap is essential, yet insufficient on its own. �鶹��ýӳ��ust also expand access to postsecondary opportunities for students with disabilities and support their success. The foray into postsecondary education represents a new frontier for many individuals with disabilities, especially those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. But today’s parents and students expect more.

Steps for Policymakers

●       ADE should leverage IDEA funds to launch a Postsecondary Network for Students with Disabilities, in partnership with universities and community colleges. This network would identify obstacles preventing students with disabilities from accessing career and technical education, dual enrollment, and postsecondary opportunities and would promote ways to increase participation.

●       The state must establish postsecondary goals for students with disabilities and incorporate them into the state’s Progress Meter and accountability conversations.

●       ADE should partner with the Board of Regents and AZTransfer to develop a strategic plan to incorporate students with disabilities in all future reporting. There should be no data with asterisks that exclude special education students.

5. Increase Workforce Participation  

In 2017, the Governor issued an in support of, supporting  competitive, integrated employment as the expectation for Arizonans with a disability. Students with disabilities are a valuable asset �鶹��ýӳ��ust develop to help meet state education and employment goals.

Steps for Policymakers

●       All state agencies participating in Employment First should provide an annual report to the Governor that includes goals and metrics, accomplishments and recommendations– administrative and legislative–that would facilitate progress.

●       As partnerships between business and education strengthen, ensure students with disabilities are prioritized. Every program created to enhance work skills for high school students should also include opportunities for students with disabilities.

Education, business and elected officials agree that Arizona’s approach to special education must change. The prospect of additional CARES Act funding gives our state a long-awaited opportunity to introduce a new approach to special education and ensure all Arizona students have the opportunity to succeed.

 This is Arizona’s moment to act on behalf of students with disabilities. Let’s not waste it.

Karla Phillips-Krivickas is the Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy for KnowledgeWorks. She has over 20 years of national and state education policy experience in legislative, executive and non-profit leadership roles. As a mother of a child with a disability, Karla is channeling her experience and opportunities to passionately advocate for students with disabilities. She’s on Twitter at @azkarla. 

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As the COVID-19 virus impacts 56 million million students across Arizona and the U.S., a national education advocacy group has launched an initiative to promote policies to help students continue to succeed, including creating more small and “micro schools.” 

The non-profit Yes Every Kid organization is encouraging lawmakers and education leaders to rethink what will provide parents and teachers more flexibility and options this upcoming school year and beyond, said Becky Hill, the group’s western regional director.   

“We want to present information about what great opportunities there are during this time to use these small learning communities that are not only safe but are great for providing an individualized learning experience,” Hill said. “Pandemic or no, it’s key to make sure every student has a good experience and uses their learning potential.”

COVID-19 Playbook for educational success 

The non-profit has launched the COVID-19 , Opportunity in Crisis, to present ideas and solutions to parents, school leaders and lawmakers that are designed to help students continue to learn despite ongoing disruptions.

Among the recommendations are more funding and opportunities for students to attend smaller schools, micro schools and community organization programs for credit in a  “learn everywhere” model, Hill said. 

Micro-schools are typically considered small neighborhood schools that enroll fewer than 10 children. They can take place within public and private schools, community organizations like a Boys and Girls club, home settings, and even at employer spaces.   

Also called  “pandemic pods,” there has been a surge in parents seeking out or forming their own small schools and pooling money and resources to hire full-time teachers and tutors to come in and work directly with students. 

In Arizona, a leader in school choice, micro schools have been growing in popularity in recent years. The non-profit Black Mothers Forum in Phoenix, for example, helps families form their own pods in partnership with public schools. The Self Development Academy chain of charter schools in the Phoenix region partners with child care facilities to offer more options for families. 

Learn everywhere model 

One of the tenets promoted by the initiative is to make education more flexible to address each student’s unique needs. For example, a student might take online classes in the morning at home and in the afternoon take music or fine arts classes for credit at a community organization, Hill said. 

“I think it’s really important that we create opportunities for learning to happen wherever it is and not limit ourselves to think everything has to happen on a campus or at home alone in the living room,” Hill said.

Arizona leader in innovative options 

Many of the policies recommended by the group already are part of Arizona’s educational landscape. Gov. Doug Ducey has used the state’s discretionary funding to bolster innovative educational approaches, Hill said. 

Among the group’s recommendations are more discretionary dollars for governors to address specific needs in their states, Hill said. This would provide quicker access to funds for families to obtain school supplies and hire tutors and educators to supplement parents who are struggling at home. 

For many states, the biggest challenge is funding, Hill said. The organization is calling on governments, including the federal government, to provide funding to make more options available like quality online instruction and after-school enrichment for students who need it most. That includes funding for families who don’t have the financial resources to create their own learning pods. 

“What we’d really like to see is our congressional delegations across all states to come together with additional dollars for learning for families,” Hill said. 

Yes Every Kid is an initiative affiliated with , a non-profit funded by Charles Koch to address issues like poverty, education and immigration.

With all the problems facing Americans right now, finding common ground among diverse groups on hot button issues like school funding is one of the organization’s goals Stand Together CEO Brian Hooks told reporters.

Hooks stated that the group wants to move beyond the “’us versus them’ framing in K-12.” 

“Let’s clear the decks and the conversation, and let’s focus on what really matters. To my mind, that is, every student, every kid,” Hooks said. “This is framed as private versus public, teacher versus student, parent versus administrator. And that’s not productive. All of those people in their hearts, they want their kids to succeed.” 

For a complete list of the group’s recommendations, go to:

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Highly respectable judges of school quality like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and Stanford University’s Education Opportunity Project give Arizona schools high marks. The online finance website however ranks Arizona 49^th out of 50 states.

Measuring the quality of a K-12 system is a complex endeavor, but not nearly as much as the marketing firm Wallethub makes it. For a succinct explanation of what Wallethub does and the basic problem with their K-12 rankings, I cannot improve upon that provided regarding a previous Wallethub state K-12 ranking:

WalletHub is a personal finance website that makes its money from advertising and premium listings on the site. It has come up with a brilliant marketing strategy. It collects data from other sources, tosses it into a blender, and spits out a list of the best and worst states and cities about various things…WalletHub, however, isn’t a serious social science research outfit, as this report amply demonstrates.

If you peer into the blender of Wallethub’s, you once again see a goulash of weird ingredients that don’t really belong together. 

Imagine looking into a blender to see grapes, ice cream, vegetable stew and Purina monkey chow with a cup of chocolate syrup and you might get in the neighborhood. Specifically, the Wallethub rankings include a mixture of measures that are inputs rather than outputs, others that are projections about the future, and others that are merely regulatory in nature and have nothing to do with school quality.

Direct measures of academic achievement are few and far between, and predictably the bartender has thrown the wrong ones into the mix. Most analysts agree that the best measure of the quality of a school system is not the overall levels of academic achievement, but rather academic growth over time.

Academic achievement is important, but it is also highly correlated with socio-economic characteristics. We know for instance that upper quintile families spend approximately five times as much as bottom quintile families on student enrichment activities. If the higher income kids show higher levels of math achievement than low income students, is it because they attend higher quality schools, or is it because they go to Kumon? We cannot be entirely sure.

Academic growth on the other hand is not nearly as correlated with socio-economic status. Measuring academic improvement over time tells us where students start and how much they learn over time. Kids can have different starting and ending points but a measure of academic growth can tell us how much they learned between those two points in time.

linked state academic exams across the country to give both a comparable growth and achievement score for Grades 3-8 in the country. The below chart shows academic growth (the dotted east-west line) by academic achievement (north-south line) for public schools in Arizona. Each dot represents an Arizona public school. Note that the dotted east-west line represents the national average for academic growth:

The first thing you should notice here is that far more schools are above the dotted line than below it. That is because Arizona schools lead the nation in academic growth during this period. 

Arizona not only has many above-average-growth schools, it also has some of the highest growth schools in the country. The highest performing schools rank among the highest performing schools in the nation whether you use growth, proficiency or both.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) also shows Arizona students made stronger than average academic progress across a variety of 4^th and 8^th grade exams since 2009.

Arizona schools, like schools in all other states, must continue to improve. Our schools, however, are a strength, not a weakness. Arizona families can access world class public schools through both charter school and open enrollment mechanisms. Arizona not only has fantastic schools, families do not have to buy their way into their attendance boundaries in order to access them.

Matthew Ladner is the director of the Arizona Center for Student Opportunity.

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Northern Arizona University (NAU) — a $2.4 billion economic engine for the state — is focusing on flexibility and tackling the coronavirus as it gears up to open its campus in the fall to prepare another class of students for the new economy.

Last month, it launched a new COVID-19 testing center to grow the virus and test new drugs against it. And later this summer, it’s hosting an infectious disease boot camp. 

When the campus reopens, there will also be a heavy emphasis on virtual education options for students, NAU President Rita Cheng told �鶹��ýӳ��. 

“It’s imperative that we get kids educated, and particularly in this economy that we’re facing and the recovery,” Cheng said. “We’re all looking at flexibility. That’s the key. We can’t predict the future. We can only stay as flexible as possible.” 

That flexibility enabled the university to graduate the largest class ever last semester. The faculty and staff made a “heroic” effort to pivot to a virtual format last semester and it paid off, Cheng said. The school graduated about 6,000 students. 

“NAU has passion. Our mission is to shape and build lives and we continued on and that was something that kept us grounded during this really incredible disruptive event,” Cheng said.

Campus reopening with lots of virtual options

To keep the momentum going, the university will emphasize digital options for in-state, out-of-state and foreign students when the campus reopens.  

“For students that may not want to come right away to campus, we’re going to have a digital experience for them. They can Zoom into a classroom virtually,” Cheng said. “Or if a student is ill or feels that they may not want to be exposed to other groups of students on a particular day, they can Zoom in as well. We’re going to make it as flexible as possible but still have that campus experience.”

Possible early start and end time

University officials also are exploring an earlier start time so that it can end the fall semester by Thanksgiving, Cheng said. Flexibility will be key. 

“If we have to go virtual for a few weeks at any given time, we will,” she said. “We can’t predict this virus. We can only do risk mitigation as we go along.”

The school is implementing strict health and safety protocols to continue to attract and retain out-of-state and foreign students.  

“In some ways the size of NAU and its remoteness is a benefit for those who are coming from afar,” Cheng said. “This is a relatively safe place to be. We’re going to be taking temperatures, wearing masks and being physically distant. We’re a Lumberjack family and we take care of each other.”

Medical and public health students take on the coronavirus

With a host of strong healthcare programs including nursing, physical therapy, physician assistants, occupational therapy, and public health, students became an integral part of the frontline defense against the virus last semester, Cheng said.

“Students were on the frontline and did not stop what they were doing in helping in their rotations and when their rotations ended, they volunteered in the hospitals and in the health care organizations,” she said. 

Public health faculty and students also have been doing contact tracing and modeling of the coronavirus in the county and have worked side by side with epidemiologists. Contact tracing is considered an in the arsenal to fight the disease’s spread. Individuals work with infected patients to discover everyone they had contact with who may have been exposed.

To take the race against the virus even further, the is launching new programs including a new COVID-19 testing facility and an infectious disease boot camp. 

Infectious disease boot camp opening this summer

An infectious disease boot camp, a course scheduled to launch later this summer, will be designed to inform those working in healthcare and public health as well as others interested in the subject. 

“We have seen the need for increased knowledge in this area and look forward to expanding both the expertise and interest of people to take care of themselves and others,” Cheng said. 

New COVID-19 testing center on campus 

NAU also launched the new COVID-19 Testing Service Center to grow the virus and test new drugs against it. By repurposing its existing biodefense research infrastructure for the new testing facility — labs rated at Biosafety Level 3, one of the highest levels of biocontainment — the institute is dedicating much of its significant research capacity to fight the pandemic.

The testing is being conducted at the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute (PMI) on the Flagstaff campus in conjunction with the research institute, TGen. NAU built the PMI labs in 2008 to enable researchers to handle dangerous pathogens, including research on anthrax, Valley Fever, and other diseases such as plague, West Nile virus and Zika virus, with an emphasis on developing new diagnostic tools, therapeutics and vaccines.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis that requires the whole scientific community working together to find fast, cheap, and effective solutions to the problem. Our ability to redirect the PMI BSL-3 facilities to COVID-19 research is a small but important part of the nation’s path forward,” said PMI Executive Director and Regents’ Professor Paul Keim, a world expert in pathogens. Keim worked with the FBI to crack the “anthrax letters” case in the wake of 9/11.

The first therapeutic agent being tested against the virus is the promising cancer drug 2X-121, developed by the Danish firm Oncology Venture, which recently signed a joint research agreement with PMI and NAU to evaluate it. 

Although highly-trained staff members will conduct much of the research with the virus, undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in supporting roles.

University powers state’s economy 

NAU is the largest employer in its home town of Flagstaff and has become a beacon for the region’s growing research and development industries in science and high tech. It’s economic impact affects not only Northern Arizona, but the rest of the state.

NAU’s Economic Impact

To Arizona: $2.64 billion and over 24,000 jobs

To Coconino County: $1.96 billion and over 9,500 jobs

To Maricopa County: $189 million and over 1,500 jobs

To Yuma County: $21 million, more than 200 jobs

All other counties: $111 million, over 900 jobs

In state and local taxes: $185 million

Source:

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