Arizona schools spent less of the education money they received last year on classroom instruction than in any of the 15 years the state has been keeping track.
The Auditor General's Office found that in 2015, just 53.6 cents out of every dollar for Arizona education went toward instruction. That's 7.2 cents below the national average.
Chuck Essigs of the Arizona Association of School Business Officials said the numbers are not surprising, what with the state having shorted public schools of the money owed to them.
"It really still costs you to fix your roofs. It costs you money to heat your buildings, cool your buildings, pay for the lights and everything whether you're in a state that spends a lot on education or a very low amount," he said.
And with those costs fixed, Essigs said the only place for schools to squeeze is on the classroom side. But Vicki Hanson, who manages the audit, said the numbers don't back that up.
"If costs were fixed, then during the years where districts got more money, we would have seen the classroom dollar percentage go up. But it didn't. And so if the costs were fixed all that additional money should have gone into the classroom and we should have seen that classroom dollar percentage go up, which we didn't," she said.
The report says Arizona schools, on average, spend about $7,600 annually per pupil in operational costs. The national figure is $3,100 higher.