Education controversy: Why did Arizona schools lose $29M in federal funding?

PHOENIX – A controversy is brewing over who is to blame after Arizona schools lost millions of dollars in unspent federal education funding.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says the previous regime is at fault, while his predecessor and the governor are pointing their fingers back at him.

As first reported Monday by the Arizona Republic, the state Department of Education had to return $29 million in expired federal school improvement money.

The department notified about 150-200 public district and charter schools last month that their grants for the new school year were being cut, according to the Republic. The state’s largest newspaper also reported that Horne’s department told schools they could still apply for the funding this year before realizing it was no longer available.

Blame game starts after Arizona schools lost education funding

The Department of Education confirmed the loss, but Horne, a Republican who took office in January 2023, is taking issue with how the Republic portrayed his role in the situation.

Horne calls for @azcentral Azcentral/Arizona Republic to retract false story about Federal Funds.

For immediate release: August 6, 2024#EducationForAll pic.twitter.com/dJVWYI4Joi

— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) August 6, 2024

The returned money was allocated for fiscal years 2021 and 2022. In a Tuesday letter to the Republic’s news director in which he calls for a retraction, Horne said the funding had to be allocated by schools July 1, 2022 – before he took office – and spent by Sept. 30, 2023.

“That should have either been the end of the story, or at least placed the responsibility on the administration that was in office at the time these errors were made. Instead, your publication printed a story claiming that my administration caused this problem, which is absolutely false,” Horne wrote.

Meanwhile, Horne is putting the blame on an employee who was a holdover from when Kathy Hoffman, a Democrat, was the state’s superintendent of public instruction.

“The mishandling and failure to notify districts of correct allocations with time for them to properly plan and spend the money resulted from an error by an employee of my predecessor before I took office,” he said in a statement Monday. “This person told the schools they had smaller allocations than they had. We were constantly on the phone urging districts to spend as much of the money properly as they could.”

Horne said the employee was fired — or resigned when termination was imminent — in March 2023.

“I have always worked to obtain as much money as possible for the schools, and I did not tolerate the incompetence of the employee,” he said.

Hoffman, Hobbs say Horne should be accountable

Hoffman, meanwhile, disputed the notion that Horne’s administration isn’t responsible for Arizona schools losing millions in education funding.

“This, to me, seems like a breakdown in communication, and I think the current administration should be held accountable to that,” she told the Republic. “It just doesn’t make any sense that they can point backward two years.”

Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, also called for Horne to be held accountable.

“Superintendent Horne needs to be held accountable for the gross mismanagement of school improvement grants and loss of critical federal funding meant to give every child an opportunity to thrive,” she said in a statement Monday.

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