Chandler schools dealing with fiscal, economic challenges

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

As Chandler Unified School District leaders and those in school districts across the U.S. put their budgets together this spring, there were several unresolved fiscal issues at the state level.

And with newly reelected President Donald Trump attempting to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and to cut off many forms of funding and reformed language and programs he and other Republicans don’t like, federal changes abound in 2025 as well.

The aggregate spending limit and renewal or changes to Proposition 123 funding are two of the more complicated state issues in which school districts lobby and wait, encouraging the governor and Arizona legislature to efficiently and effectively create reforms that put more money and local decision making into public education.

Those are some 2025 challenges for Chandler and other Arizona districts, which are in addition to putting together staffing and budgets on annual deadlines, not knowing exactly how much money they’ll get from the legislature.

Chandler Unified’s chief financial officer, Lana Berry, said the safest default option in planning for state funding is to plan for it to be flat, as in districts could receive the exact same dollars they received the year before.

“We plan for flat, or 2% increases,” Berry said. “Those are the safest approaches.”

Berry said local districts don’t generally lobby for federal changes or funds directly, leaving that up to national labor union or advocacy groups to push for local control or maintaining or increased funding for special programs.

Still, local leaders know their districts usually need at least some federal dollars, in one format or another. School meal funding, early childhood and pre-K programs, disability and special needs and even medical care for children are all critical funding streams for American public schools.

“Medicaid is what helps many of our students be able to be at, or to do school,” Berry said.

A May 2024 Georgetown University study shows that in the median school district across the 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, about 35.8% of children were insured by either Medicaid or by CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Housing costs in Chandler

In addition to direct federal education changes, continued inflation, tariffs, unaffordable housing and other economic factors make CUSD budget planning difficult. The district, the third-largest in the state, is facing a number of factors that are driving down its overall enrollment, including the cost of Chandler-area real estate.

The average home price in the ZIP codes CUSD serves hasn’t affected the upper grades much yet, but the last few and the next few kindergarten cohort group sizes show younger parents and their growing families can’t always afford to live in most CUSD neighborhoods.

Christy Walker, board president of Phoenix Realtors, told the Chandler Independent that things are still likely to get worse before leveling off or improving, in terms of Chandler-area home prices.

“Chandler saw new listings climb more than most (Valley) cities in the first quarter of this year, up 27.1% over the first quarter of 2024,” she said. “Pending sales declined 11.4%, but closed sales were nearly double the market at 6.5%. The median price of a single-family home in Chandler declined slightly by less than 1% to $555,000.”

Walker said Valley-wide, sales and appreciation are still on the rise.

She also said the lack of affordable housing in Chandler — the city has only initiated two subsidized apartment complex constructions in recent years — is a failure of leadership.

“Chandler local government hasn’t made a stand on affordable housing,” Walker said. “So the money for starter homes is still coming from people moving in from more expensive states.”

We invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this topic. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.   Email Jason W. Brooks at jbrooks@iniusa.org.

INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.