Arizona schools will be seeing $29 million in federal funding they nearly lost due to a lapsed allocation date, a matter that's led to a partisan blame game.
Arizona Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne announced on Friday that the U.S. Department of Education granted the necessary waivers, so that the money could be returned to the Arizona Department of Education.
These funds were leftover from the Title I school improvement funds for years 2021, 2022 and 2023. In order for these funds to be used, they have to be allocated by the Arizona Department of Education. Twenty-four million dollars of those funds were not allocated to any district and $5 million had been allocated, but the districts did not spend them in time
In addition to this, Horne announced earlier this year that Title I allocations were lower this year due to cuts at the federal level.
“The reductions were so significant – and the Department announced them so late in the fiscal year – that school districts and charter schools were forced to make last-minute cuts to summer programming and employee positions in order to remain within their budgets,” reads a letter from Rep. Nancy Gutierrez to Rep. Matt Gress, who chairs the Judicial Legislative Audit Committee, requesting a special audit into the Department of Education. “These actions bring into question whether the Department exercises the attention, transparency and clear communication needed to appropriately oversee our state's educational funding.”
JLAC held a hearing on Sept. 18, giving Horne a chance to testify as to why the Department had let this deadline pass without applying for a waiver. To this, Horne stated that it was the fault of the prior administration and an employee who has since been fired.
