What should we do about school districts that are squandering money?

Surprise, surprise. Arizona now spends $3,360 less to educate a child than the national average, according to a new state audit. Oh, I know. Who doesn’t love a good bargain? But discount schools ... really? This is shameful in a state whose leaders claim to value education. And more shameful still: Only 53.5 percent of that reached the classroom in 2016 — the lowest since state auditors began watching spending in 2000. This, compared with 60.8 percent nationwide.

Some of the blame certainly lies at the feet of those committed champions of public education we call our Legislature and governor(s). But consider this:

“This percentage (of classroom spending) has declined both during years of increased and decreased overall spending,” the audit said. “Since its peak in fiscal year 2004, the State’s classroom dollar percentage has declined 5.1 percentage points, while the percentages spent on all other operational areas have increased.”

As a result, the average teacher salary, adjusted for inflation, has dropped 9 percent since 2004. (Fortunately, Gov. Doug Ducey has proposed a four-tenths of 1 percent pay raise!) And average class size is now up to 18.6 students, compared with 16.1 nationwide.

There is some good news. Contrary to some of our leaders’ beliefs, Arizona’s school districts spend less than the national average on administration — $806, compared with $1,211 nationwide (10.4 percent to 10.9 percent).

But when it comes to classroom instruction, our $4,145 spent on every student doesn’t come close to the national average of $6,726.

Administrators will, no doubt, attribute that to dwindling budgets and fixed costs. But that doesn’t explain why classroom spending has dropped every year since 2004 — long before the recession prompted our leaders to take a pickax to public schools.

The audit found that some districts are operating efficiently. They monitor various performance measures, such as cost per square foot. They conserve energy, close unneeded buildings, limit overtime and plan bus routes to ensure that buses are at least 75 percent full.

Not surprisingly, those districts are spending more in the classroom.

“In contrast, less efficient districts had costly benefit packages and higher non-classroom staffing levels, operated schools far below designed capacity, did not monitor energy consumption, had poorly written vendor contracts, and paid bus drivers for time not spent working,” the audit said.

Many of those inefficient districts, the audit concluded, are districts that have access to extra money not available to other districts, such as desegregation funds or federal aid. Hmm.

Seems to me that in addition to talking about how schools need more money (and they certainly do), we need to talk about what to do with districts that are squandering money (and, according to the audit, they certainly are).

Me? I’m still wondering why we need 215 school districts — 56 of them in Maricopa County alone.

This audit might point the way to which ones are ripe for elimination.