Arizona Department of Education Releases Official AEL Overage
The Arizona Department of Education reported today that spending on K-12 district schools for FY2023 will exceed the Constitutional Aggregate Expenditure Limit (AEL) by $1,385,809,642. The letter from Superintendent Hoffman is the second step in the statutory process that, if not overridden by the Legislature on or before March 1, will result in school districts having to reduce their budgets by their share of that amount on or before April 1, 2023.
ASBA has produced a model resolution for districts to adopt that points out this risk to student learning and calls on the Legislature and Gov. Ducey to convene a special session to override the limit. The resolution has been passed by 54 school districts statewide so far. Has your district done it yet? If not, it’s not too late to add your district’s name to the list. And send a copy to your Legislators while you’re at it!
Don’t Let Anyone Forget About Education Doomsday
Don’t let anyone who follows you on social media forget how long it is before educaton doomsday, when school districts lose $1.3 billion.
Head over to educationdoomsday.com to see how long the Legislature and the governor have left to avoid these catastrophic cuts. Feel free to follow along and post about it on social media. You can link to the clock directly in your own posts on Facebook and Twitter.
A-F Letter Grades Appeals Window Open
The Arizona State Board of Education issued its first new A-F Letter grades since the 2018-2019 school year yesterday. The letter grade spreadsheet is available on the SBE website. Schools that wish to appeal their letter grades for reasons such as environmental issues, adverse testing conditions, or school or community emergency, have until 5 p.m. on November 15, 2022 to file an appeal. The policies and procedures for filing an appeal are available at the link above. Schools that timely and properly submit appeals will have their letter grades relisted as “UR” (Under Review) until the appeal is resolved by the board.
Student Loan Forgiveness Watch
Over the last couple of weeks, the U.S. Department of Education has opened its application for student loan relief. Those who wish to file an application may do so at studentaid.gov. The program has been subject to several court challenges, and was temporarily halted by an order from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday after a coalition of states sued to stop its implementation. However, the program has not been struck down by the courts and USDOE officials encourage eligible borrowers to continue applying so processing is not delayed if/when the program is allowed to move forward.