In a move that could bolster resources for Arizona's underserved schools, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has announced that the U.S. Department of Education offered a waiver to prevent about $29 million of Title I funds from being returned to the federal coffers — funds which were reportedly underutilized during the tenure of the former superintendent, Kathy Hoffman. According to a statement on the Arizona Department of Education's website, this waiver would apply to state fiscal years 2021 through 2023.
The opportunity for the waiver, known as a Tydings waiver, became known only recently when the USED reached out to ADE Title I staff on August 8, before this point, there hadn't been any communication from USED about a potential waiver to recoup these funds, some of which date back to under-allocations that started in Fiscal Year 2020. The current government accuses the previous administration of allowing the significant pileup of these funds which were never dispensed to the districts and charters they were meant to aid making a situation where the responsibility seemed to hover in the bureaucratic limbo.
Horne has expressed both his gratitude for the federal notice and his commitment to Arizona's schools by saying, "I will always fight for more money for schools, so I am happy to submit this waiver request to the federal government.” Direct from the horses' mouth, this statement was obtained by the Arizona Department of Education's official communications. He also addressed criticism from the governor about the management of these funds, stating that these "dollars should have been sent to districts and charters years ago during the Hoffman administration, but they were allowed by previous staff to accumulate and potentially revert."
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