Texas Schools Sue State for Funding Reform

[Rose Siding]

AUSTIN, Texas -- The state's share-the-wealth school finance system went on trial Monday as lawyers for more than 300 districts argued that the system's dependence on local property taxes is flawed and unconstitutional.

Texas' education funding system is nicknamed "Robin Hood" by some because it takes money from rich schools and gives it to poorer ones. The system has been under fire for years, and some school districts turned to the courts after struggling to get the changes they wanted from the Legislature.

The dispute highlights a dilemma states across the country are experiencing: how to adequately educate students in an era of new curriculum standards, mandates under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and growing student populations.
...
The share-the-wealth system passed the Legislature in 1993 only after the state Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to devise a more equitable plan, one that guaranteed poor school districts equal access to funds.

The finance plan, upheld by the Supreme Court in 1995, resolved a long-running lawsuit filed by poor districts a decade earlier.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-school-finance,0,55723.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Wright Patman]

Sorry, duplicate post

[Wright Patman]

1. The present system

is actually too "equitable" for property taxpayers in the wealthy school districts.

The Texas Senator most upset about the system is a Repuke from the suburbs north of Dallas named Florence Shapiro.

Nearly 90 percent of Texas districts benefit from the current system. The only reason they have joined in the lawsuit is to push for an income tax, which will never happen because the Constitution would have to be amended and then voters would have the final say.

Bottom line: the current system may not be ideal, but it is probably as good a deal as the districts with little wealth will ever get, given the one-party rule of the GOP over this state.

[MrTriumph]

2. With all due respect, "Baloney!"

In all fairness, the school finance system was broken before the Rs had total control of state government. It is certainly fair to say they have failed to come up with a solution.

Without the state gov't using additional revenue (from sources besides property tax), the rich districts get, well, robbed. After all it is called "Robin Hood".

The solution is for the state to derive revenue for other sources and dedicate that money to schools. This would give property owners one of the breaks that they deserve. The second break would be additional limits on local governments that abuse the property tax to go on spending spees and that grant tax abatements and other forms of corporate welfare.

[Wright Patman]

5. Do you think "other sources"

includes a personal income tax or even business income taxes? Because if you do, you are sadly mistaken and have not observed the Texas political scene very closely.

Democrats are usually for a more equitable distribution of resources, be it in the area of school finance or anywhere else. I stand by my statement that this is the most equitable system that is politically possible at this time.

And if that makes the people living in "property-rich" areas angry, so be it. Probably you have been able to guess that my district is not in one of those areas or I might well take the selfish viewpoint of Sen. Shapiro. I hope I wouldn't, but I might.

[mbperrin]

3. Robin Hood was at least a partial attempt to correct the

insane idea that because oil is under your county that your kids deserve a better education than others. After all, unless you believe that God directed the drawing of county lines, it was all a matter of chance to start with. Even the best schools in Texas are not that great, so it's not like you're having to choose from really great and pretty great. More like pretty adequate vs close to the bottom of the barrel.

Until the Lege comes to grips with the notion that it will cost money to educate (and I mean really educate, not pass the pissy TAAS, TAKS, TEAM or whatever other test they can dream up that starts with a T), Texas schoolchildren will be ill-served.

[sam sarrha]

4. robin hood system is called "unified school system" not so uncommon ..

schools in El Paso, TX were running on 4 days a week, in the poorer neighborhoods the cities "Independent" school districts.