Arizona School Districts Uncertain Of Details In New Performance Pay Plan

Published: Monday, August 7, 2017 - 2:45pm

Arizona school districts say they haven’t received details yet about a funding stream provided in the new state budget. The $38 million program is supposed to give top AzMERIT scoring schools additional per-student funding.

The Arizona Capitol Times reported Monday that districts are currently relying on a list of about 250 schools compiled by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in the spring, but the official list of schools that will receive money, and how much they receive, has not been finalized by the Arizona Department of Education.

Chuck Essigs, with the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, said slow rollouts aren’t uncommon when new policy is enacted, especially when there aren’t other states with similar policies to refer to.

"It’s wasn’t a program that initiated from the Department of Education," he explained. "So this is probably going a bit slower because the Department of Education employees obviously will have to be brought up to speed so they can help the school districts."

According to the Capitol Times, the Arizona Department of Education hopes to provide more specific program information next month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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