Chuck Essigs, director of government relations for the Arizona Associations of School Business Officials, has been the go-to guy on school finance for lawmakers, lobbyists and reporters alike for more than two decades. As he enters another session, he plans to do what he’s always done: provide answers to difficult school finance questions. 

How did you get to where you are now? 

I was working in the Arizona Department of Education in the special education department, And back when they redid the formulas and everything, and the formula that we have now that was implemented in 1980. I got assigned to go over to the Legislature and help on special education funding. And then when I got over there, it expanded into working on total school finance and the funding formulas for schools across the state. And then when I came back to the Department of Education, I was appointed as the director of school finance, and I’ve been in school finance ever since that time. And then I went to the Mesa School District and worked as an assistant superintendent for business services for almost 20 years. So, I moved out of special education into school finance.

What drew you to school finance? 

I realized in school districts, as you look at the programs that are needed and the services that you want to provide, school finance is a major issue. If they don’t fund it, or can’t fund it, then those programs are at risk or don’t exist. So it’s a very important function in the school district that you have your school finance program working together with what the district goals are. So you’re using your funding to do the things that are important – first the things that are mandated, and also the things that are important to the community and that are important to your school district.

How have you navigated the human and community aspects of school finance? 

Well, I think it’s important that you listen to people, and you may ultimately not be able to provide the funding for the programs that they think are important or they want to see but, it’s really important that the people in the school district feel that the business office is listening and doing the best they can to use the resources to provide the programs that are needed in the school district. But it’s important that people say, “I appreciate that, because he or she listens.” They may not always agree, but they listen to the person’s concerns and they listen to the issues. 

There’s only so much budget, there’s always going to be kind of a give and take. How do you have those hard conversations? 

In Mesa, we would always meet in January with our teachers and our staff to explain to them, here’s how much funding we’re going to have because of what we say with the Legislature, until they you know, it’s adjusted because of the formula, but these are the dollars that we’re going to have available next year. Because if you can’t agree on how much money you have, you can’t agree on how the money should be spent, so you need to make sure that the community understands the funding formula and the amount of monies that are available. 

What have you found are the greatest misconceptions about budgeting? 

I think they need to know that the funding for schools is formula driven, and you have to operate within that in formula funding. It’s not like you don’t want to spend more on some programs. It’s not that you don’t want to do more things, but Arizona and school districts across the country have limits on Arizona’s very restrictive resources – we have a limit on how much you can spend. 

People need to understand that’s not a decision by districts, but we have this amount of funding that’s determined by state formulas, where the Legislature is very important, that about all of the formulas, except for the ones that come from the federal government and federal funding, are put in place by the Legislature. So if you want to have funding formulas that are different, in most cases it takes legislative action to bring about those changes. 

How has your work in the Legislature changed over the years? 

I am still trying to answer questions by legislators and provide legislators with information that they need to make their decisions. That’s been pretty consistent for many, many years. It’s just now that there’s more disagreements to address. 

The last time you did a Q&A with the Arizona Capitol Times, Proposition 123 had just passed. What do you make of how the measure has shaped out in the last ten years? 

For a major funding proposal like Prop. 123, you need to have something permanent in place, because right now, districts are facing the problem that if Prop. 123 doesn’t get through the Legislature, the Legislature is going to face the fact that they have some additional funding responsibility for school districts. Maybe it’s not the best way – to do these 10-year programs. Make them permanent, and then if they’re not working, repeal them.

Now, as we’re reimagining this funding source, what do you expect lawmakers to do? 

The fears people may have had ten years ago … the state land trust has just moved in the opposite direction. They’ve done a great job of investing those monies, and maybe as part of the renewal of Prop. 123 one of the things people may want to take a look at is if there is more secure funding available from the state land trust and they could start using more of that money to help the current education needs of students.

It’s too early to determine what the solution is going to be, because you have different people looking at different things, with different ways of doing things. 

What have you found is the best way to translate complex finance concepts to a freshman lawmaker or someone totally new to school finance? 

I will always try to remember that education is one of many issues. They have water issues, they have health issues, they have education issues. So you want to make sure that you listen to what their questions are, and try to explain and answer those questions with the understanding that this is one of many, many things they have to work on, and one of many, many things that they have to address during the legislative session.

You answer their questions directly. You listen to what their question is, and you provide the answers that they need to have their questions answered. Good or bad. If there’s maybe a situation where things could be better in an area, or whatever – you want to give them all the facts, not just the select facts. 

What guides you in your work? 

You don’t take criticism personally. If somebody’s disagreeing with what you’re talking or asking to be done, or disagreeing with information that you’re giving them, or whatever, it’s important that that’s not personal. You don’t take offense. You just want to make sure that the person had all the information that you can give them, 

As long as they’re hearing the information, hearing the facts, and then making the decision based upon that, and that decision is different from what you asked them to do or what you thought should be done. That’s not personal. That’s the way the process works. 

How do you reflect on past legislative sessions now? 

There’s always some major issues each year that you feel that you worked on. If you feel that the message that you provide was used by the Legislature in the decision-making process, you feel good about it. And then some years where you think you’ve done an excellent job of explaining something and giving arguments for it, and the Legislature doesn’t act on it or acts in a different mode, that’s the way the process works, and you just have to look to the next year.

Do you have any goals for this upcoming session? Future sessions? Are you thinking about getting out of the business anytime soon? 

Ironically, I still enjoy what I do. So when I get to a point where I don’t enjoy it anymore, or I don’t feel that I’m playing any role, then probably that is time. And I put enough time in where if I wanted to retire I could, but I like what I do.

There are some things, like teacher salaries. We all want to increase teacher salaries. I shouldn’t say we all do. But you know, there’s certainly many people who are involved in the Legislature, involved with school districts, school district people want to be able to increase teacher salaries, and hopefully we can find some solutions that best allow that to happen. 

What do you like most about your job? 

You feel good when you know that someone had a question and you were able to answer the question.

What’s something the average person may not know about you? 

Before I got into education, I wanted to be in construction. I wanted to drive a truck and run a bulldozer. I did that for a summer and during the time I was in college. And then I didn’t go back to college because of that. I really like this. And then it got cold, and then I was in New Jersey, and then we had to work in the snow, do all those difficult things. That kind of taught me that maybe going to college and going into teaching is not so bad after all.

What is your personal motto or ethos? 

Treat people with respect, even when you disagree with them.