Maricopa Unified Audit Reveals Lack Of Desegregation Goals

District officials did not know why they received desegregation dollars

The Arizona Auditor General recently conducted a performance audit of the Maricopa Unified School District including its desegregation spending. The District taxed for and spent $1.3 million for activities that it classified as desegregation activities.

According to the audit, the District could not demonstrate that the monies addressed its violation because it did not have any documentation related to the desegregation case, and district officials could not explain the purpose or goals of its desegregation spending.

The audit reads in part:

OCR cases originate from a complaint alleging discrimination in programs that receive federal monies from the U.S. Department of Education. If the OCR investigates the allegation and determines that a violation occurred, the OCR works with the school district to negotiate a voluntary administrative agreement that describes the specific actions that the district will undertake to address the violation.

If the district does not agree to the administrative agreement, the OCR will refer the case to the U.S. Department of Justice, possibly resulting in a court order requiring the entity to take specific actions. Arizona state law allows school districts with a desegregation administrative agreement or court order to budget desegregation expenditures outside of their normal budget limits. This allows districts to gain and spend additional monies through local property taxes and additional state aid for desegregation activities to address their violation.

Although Maricopa USD has increased its Maintenance and Operations Fund expenditure budget since at least fiscal year 2002 for desegregation expenditures, it could not show that these monies were used to address its violation. It did not do so because officials had no idea what the violation was.

In fiscal year 2012, the District increased its budget and spent approximately $1.3 million, or $239 per student, for activities that it classified as desegregation activities. Most of this additional spending was used to pay a portion of the salaries and benefits of approximately 25 teachers. However, the District did not have any documentation related to its desegregation case, such as the original complaint and related administrative agreement explaining the violation that resulted in the need for the desegregation spending and the specific actions the District agreed to take. Because district officials did not know what violation the program was to address it could not explain how the District’s desegregation spending addressed the violation or whether the program was successful at addressing the violation.

Table 2: Number of students, capacity, and percentage of capacity used by school Fiscal year 2012

Source: Auditor General staff analysis of fiscal year 2012 Arizona Department of Education student membership data and fiscal year 2012 building capacity information obtained from the Arizona School Facilities Board.

^{Number of students does not include students who attended an online school or for whom the District paid tuition to other schools.}
Auditor General staff analysis of fiscal year 2012 Arizona Department of Education student membership data and fiscal year 2012 building capacity information obtained from the Arizona School Facilities Board.