A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Texas Supreme Court decision, which ruled that the current system of school finance in Texas is constitutional.  As you may recall, I said that the decision "reinforced [the Court's] proper and critical role in both interpreting law and following its own precedents."  That being said, I also mentioned that our state's school finance system is in need of some significant improvements.  Therefore, in this newsletter, I'd like to take the opportunity to share some of my ideas for fixing the problems that I believe exist in the finance system for the state's public schools.

The problems people describe generally fall into one of two categories:

Adequacy

The fight over adequacy is never-ending. How do 181 legislators from diverse areas with vastly different ideologies reach agreement on how much school funding is "enough?" Currently, taxpayers spend about $10,750 per student (TEA PEIMS Data) to fund public schools in Texas. There are many who think this amount is too much. To make their case they point to outrageous athletic program expenditures or "Taj Mahals" of education being built in some districts around the state. Others decry an insufficient amount of money being spent on "students" and point out large class sizes, crumbling buildings and low student achievement ratings as evidence of this problem.  

My personal belief is that public school funding in Texas seems adequate when you look at the average total funding per student (again, currently north of $10,750 when all funding sources are counted).   Assuming a relatively low class size of 18 kids, this would total $193,500 per classroom and would cover the costs of teachers, administrators, buildings and other expenses of operating a school.  If we are talking about larger class sizes (say 24 kids), there would be $258,000 per classroom to pay for operating costs. There are a number of things that our state and the federal government could do to allow these funds to be spent more effectively by school districts, but the total funding amount seems adequate, in my opinion .

With strong proponents on both sides, I would expect the Legislature to continue to fund annual student enrollment growth plus inflation for the foreseeable future.

Equity

The main problem that I see in our system of finance are the huge funding discrepancies between school districts, often due not to the educational needs of the student, but rather the economic interests located within a district. For instance, which side of a school district line an oil well, wind farm or power plant is located can have a dramatic impact on that district's finances. These are extremely difficult issues to solve legislatively, as winners in the school-finance lottery are not likely to get re-elected if they were to agree to a more equitable system.  

I would like to see a finance system in Texas where schools across the state are funded strictly based on the number of students that they are educating and the educational needs of those students. To achieve this goal the ideal solution would be for the state to provide all school funding but to give local officials and parents much more autonomy in spending those funds. Possible proposals along these lines are numerous but I am intrigued most by:

1. Statewide commercial property tax--removing commercial property taxes from local funding formulas and consolidating them into a statewide pool for funding purposes.
2. Consolidated funding districts--for purposes of funding only, tie different communities together so that funding levels per student are equalized.
3. Statewide property tax--the most simple solution but also the most fraught with political obstacles (including the need for a constitutional amendment) and potential unintended consequences.

Perhaps the ideal solution is among these concepts or a combination of these concepts. They all have their strengths and their drawbacks (both politically and fiscally) and any changes to our current system will ignite a vigorous debate. Ultimately, I believe that the Legislature must narrow the gap between higher-funded schools and lower-funded schools to keep us in line with our state's constitution and, just as importantly, because it is the right thing to do.