Understanding Overrides

What is an Override? (Basic School Finance Explanation)

How are Arizona schools financed? This is meant to be a general explanation concerning school financing. For more information on school district financing contact the Arizona Department of Education.

School districts receive money from the various sources. The federal government, the State of Arizona and local taxpayers primarily supply the funding for school district’s budget.

Federal money is meant to support programs established by federal legislation. Typically this money is dispersed by the federal government to the state, and then the state uses a certain percentage of the money to administer the program. The remaining funds are then dispersed to the districts using formulas that look at such things as the number of special education students, number of English language learners or many funds are allotted base on the number of students that qualify for the federal free or reduced lunch programs. Though the money from the federal programs does assist schools it typically does not pay for district to comply the requirements of the legislation and district are forced to spend funds from other sources.

The State of Arizona supplies most of its dollars to the school districts based on the number of students enrolled in the district. These funds are split in general between two sides of the budget: Maintenance and Operations (M&O) and Capital Expenditures. Maintenance and Operations funds the actual programs being run in the district, it pays for salaries, supplies and general day operation of the district. The Capital portion of the budget pays for computers, desks, and those items that represent the more permanent objects you see when entering a school and classroom.

Based on the findings showing Arizona at the very bottom of per pupil funding, the State of Arizona does not supply each local district with the funding needed to operate and provide a high quality education for the states students. Local districts are allowed to ask local taxpayers to provide funds to supplement their Maintenance and Operations or Capital budgets. This is done through the collection of local property taxes. The districts citizens are asked to vote for Overrides.

Maintenance and Operations Overrides pay for additional teachers, classroom aides, gifted and remedial programs. Capital Overrides allow for the additional purchasing of equipment for the schools. When an election is called for by a district it may be to start a new override or to renew a previous one. Once an override is established, school districts must renew the override every seven years in order to continue to use the funding and keep the programs that are funded with those dollars. A renewal of an override does not result in increased taxes; it allows the district to maintain current budgets.