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In fiscal year 2008, Arizona’s state-wide
percentage of dollars spent in the classroom was 57.3 percent, which is the
lowest it has been in the 8 years the Auditor General’s Office has been
monitoring classroom dollars and almost 4 percentage points lower than the
national average of 61 percent. The classroom dollar percentage has declined
despite schools’ receiving about $300 million a year in Classroom Site Fund
(CSF) monies. These monies are intended to increase classroom spending,
primarily by increasing teacher salaries. However, spending patterns
indicate that districts are using CSF monies to supplant—or replace, rather
than add to—other district monies primarily to pay for increased student and
instructional support services costs. If districts had maintained their
previous level of classroom spending and added to it the CSF monies, the
classroom dollar percentage would be 2.4 percentage points higher and the
average teacher salary in Arizona would be about $7,500 higher.
A district’s size continues to be the primary
factor associated with higher classroom spending. Larger districts can
spread fixed, noninstructional costs over more students, leaving more
dollars to spend in the classroom. However, many smaller districts are still
able to spend a higher percentage of their dollars in the classroom than the
state average. According to district officials at some of these small-sized
districts with high classroom dollar percentages, they were able to lower
their noninstructional costs by having employees perform several jobs and
hiring part-time staff.
Finally, districts are required to direct
40 percent of their CSF monies to teacher performance pay. State law
provides guidance on the types of goals that performance pay plans should
include, but allows districts to modify these measures. As a result,
districts varied widely in the goals they established for awarding
performance pay to eligible employees.
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