And the contrasts between neighboring urban districts are often stark. Take the tiny 1,435-student Wilson district in downtown Phoenix, with two schools and 94 percent minority enrollment. The district sits on valuable land that produces an assessed valuation that is more than nine times higher than that of its neighbor to the south, the Roosevelt school district. The council is a coalition of 21 Phoenix-area school systems. In 1994, in response to a lawsuit from property-poor districts, the state supreme court ruled that the vast disparities in facilities made Arizona's school finance system unconstitutional.
State law caps districts' operational spending and sets a maximum tax rate.
Districts that cannot reach the spending limit at the maximum tax rate qualify for state aid, which substantially evens out operational spending. But the cost of building and maintaining schools has been financed wholly through local property taxes. As a result, some districts sport indoor swimming pools while others cannot pay for basic repairs. Policymakers spent most of 1995 talking about finance. In 1996, they took some action.