PEORIA, Ariz. — As Arizona classrooms are getting back into the swing of things in the new year, school administrators have their hands tied with budgeting. That’s because the state legislature has yet to address the aggregate expenditure limit, a decades old spending cap on their public school funding.
Peoria School District Superintendent, Jason Reynolds, said their portion of the aggregate expenditure limit is about $52 million. If the spending cap is not lifted, the Peoria district said they'd have to cut that portion out of their budget in the last quarter of the year.
Reynolds said that would be a devastating hit for the state’s fourth largest school district to take. He added they have budgeted for the $52 million because the state already allocated the funding for them.
If forced to make the cuts, Reynolds said it would impact every teacher, student and employee in the district. He called it a tremendous challenge in a short period of time and said the potential negative impact is making solidifying plans for teachers and students at the end of the school year difficult.
“It is going to have a tremendous impact and is having a tremendous impact on how we budget, how we plan," Reynolds said. "It puts us in a spot where we’re really uneasy about how we’re going to be able to use our resources as we enter into the second semester and fourth quarter of our school year.”
Reynolds said he hopes the legislature lifts the spending cap soon, which is something that was set back in the 1980s. He would like to see the legislature called back into a special session to address the issue right now.
Democratic Representative, Jennifer Pawlik, believes it's critical to address the AEL in the early days of this session. She said in part in a statement Monday, “If we fail to lift the cap, schools will have to cut 17% of their budgets during the fourth quarter of this school year. This could mean layoffs or school closures.” Pawlik added that she will introduce an AEL reform bill that will keep the guardrails in place, but will be a long-term fix so this situation doesn’t have to be revisited every year.
12News reached out to Republican leaders for comment on Monday, but have not yet received a response. The legislature doesn’t have the power to permanently lift the AEL spending cap. That would have to go to Arizona voters to make a change in the state’s constitution.
The legislature has until March 1 to lift the cap. If it’s not fixed by then, Reynolds says he’d be required to make cuts to his district on April 1.
It would be a devastating blow to his schools, he said. Reynolds added with the $52 million his district has already been allocated, he’s just waiting for permission from the legislature to use those resources to finish up the school year.
He said there’s a lot of confusion around the AEL for parents, community members and Peoria employees.
“What we need the state legislature to do is to get rid of that 40 year old formula that matches 2023, rather than 1980,” Reynolds said. “We are pausing any of our future investments because we’re waiting to see what impact this would potentially have, it’s very stressful.”
>> Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone.
12News on YouTube
Catch up on the latest news and stories on the 12News YouTube channel. Subscribe today.