Heartbreaking.

Today, I was curious about how my district compares with other Arizona schools as far as free and reduced lunches (FARL) go. (This is usually a good indicator of the financial state of the school's students and their families.) I found a really cool, Phoenix-area-specific site that breaks down quite a bit of information.

If you're unfamiliar with Arizona's educational system, we are consistenly one of the lowest-ranked in the United States. To combat this, the Arizona Department of Education has enacted a tax credit program wherein families can donate a tax-deductable $200-$400 to the school of their choice. (I'm not sure other states have similar programs, but I can only assume so.)

Anyway, the site I found presents this chart wherein you can see the average amount each school district receives per student. They also break it down by overall donation, as well as the district's FARL percentages. I'll post the table below, and you can click on it to make it larger. Notice that one district received $250 in one year ($0.23/student), while another received over $1.7 million ($70.04/student)... talk about discrepancies!! Ok... without further ado, the chart: