ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
school districts;
desegregation; report
Purpose
Caps the expenditures that
are exempt from the Revenue Control Limit (RCL) and the Capital Outlay Revenue
Limit (CORL) of a school district for desegregation expenses at the FY
2001-2002 levels until FY 2003-2004.
Requires school district governing boards to biennially report
desegregation expenditures to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). Establishes an eight-member Joint
Legislative Committee on Desegregation Expenses.
Background
Arizona school districts are
authorized to budget for the expenses of a court order for desegregation or an
administrative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil
Rights (OCR) (Laws 1985, Chapter 166, Section 15). Current law allows a governing board to budget for the expenses
of complying with or continuing to implement activities that were required or
permitted by a court order of desegregation or OCR administrative agreement
directed toward remediating alleged or proven racial discrimination.
School district governing
boards are required to prepare separate maintenance and operations and capital
outlay desegregation budgets designed to allow a school district to plan and
provide in detail for expenditures to be incurred for the purposes of complying
with the court order or administrative agreement using a form prescribed by the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction in conjunction with the Auditor
General. Additionally, the governing
board is required to complete a detailed report of desegregation expenditures
as part of the annual financial report.
Desegregation expenditures
are exempt from the RCL and CORL.
Governing boards may fund desegregation expenses outside of the RCL from
the following options:
a) Use
maintenance and operations monies equal to any excess desegregation or
compliance expenses beyond the RCL before June 30 of the current year.
b) Notify the
county school superintendent to add the amount necessary to comply with the
court order or administrative agreement to the primary property tax rate.
c) A
combination of the first two options if the amount does not exceed the budgeted
amount.
The amount for which
governing boards may budget for capital purposes is 12 percent of the
maintenance and operation desegregation budget, and is funded by notifying the
county school superintendent to add the amount necessary to the primary
property tax rate.
Any fiscal impact to the
state general fund associated with this bill is unknown at this time.
Provisions
1. Caps desegregation expenses for school districts at the FY 2001-2002 levels.
2. Allows new OCR administrative agreements and court orders for desegregation and school districts currently budgeting for desegregation expenses to exceed the capped budgeted amount for desegregation purposes beginning in FY 2003-2004.
3. Requires, by December 1, 2003, the Committees of Reference for the House and Senate Education Committees to conduct a sunset review of the funding mechanisms for desegregation expenditures and make recommendations for proposed legislation for the 2004 legislative session.
4. Requires school district governing boards to collect and report data regarding desegregation expenditures to ADE on or before September 30, 2003 and every two years thereafter. Stipulates data items to be collected.
5. Establishes an eight-member Joint Legislative Committee on Desegregation Expenses (Committee) to review stipulated items. Requires the Committee to report to the Governor and Legislature by December 1, 2002 and repeals the Committee on January 1, 2003.
6. Makes technical changes.
7. Provides for a general effective date.
House Action
ED 2/4/02 DPA 10-0-0-0
3rd Read 2/12/02 52-7-1-0
Prepared by Senate Staff
March 28, 2002