We approach a historic moment. This week I am confident the legislature will pass a school finance bill that will move public education a giant step forward.
Senate Bill 1 will bring equity, accountability and adequacy to our system of public education. It will once and for all guarantee equal funding to students regardless of the value of real estate in their school districts. No longer will education in Texas be dependent on the property tax revenue each school district can raise.
Senate Bill 1 is necessary to meet the mandate of the State Supreme Court in the lawsuit brought by the Edgewood School District, one of the poorest in the state. But even if the court had not acted it would still be necessary.
In 15 years, the state has tripled its budget for public education, from $1.2 billion in 1975 to more than $5 billion this year. Most of that money goes to poor school districts. But the sad fact is that our school system disequalizes itself. The wealthy districts, with their generous tax bases, can easily hike their taxes to provide more services for children. Even with a big boost from the state, the poor districts cannot keep up.
Equity doesn’t have to cost money. We could do it without spending another dime, simply by redistributing the money already there. Such a plan would cost the Dallas Independent School District up to $59 million a year, which could cause a 12 cent local tax increase. Houston would lose $38 million – an 8 cent property tax hike – and Austin would lose $25 million – a 13 cent tax hike.
That is called the Robin Hood plan – take from the rich and give to the poor. It is not popular because no one seriously wants to downgrade the quality of public education in the name of equal opportunity.
A Robin Hood plan would cause property taxes to skyrocket in many districts, and property taxes are already too high. Texas has a relatively low state tax burden – 46th in the nation in dollars per person. But our property taxes are relatively high – 21st among the states – $50 per person per year more than the national average.
Some have suggested that we cut a budget that is already too austere. The House has passed a bill cutting $74 million and reduced the rainy day fund by $40 million. To make further cuts would require cutting services to nursing home patients and the disabled, delaying prison construction or defying state court orders and federal mandates. Our budget in critical areas of corrections, health, human services and mental health and mental retardation is already strained.
We could reduce the number of state employees, but that would mean laying off prison guards, attendants in mental hospitals and schools for the retarded, highway patrolmen and parole officers.
In the best of all possible worlds, the Legislature would have enacted an income tax and greatly reduced school property taxes which are inequitable and not based on ability to pay.
But in these brief special sessions that cannot happen, so the best solution is the one-half cent sales tax increase already passed by the House of Representatives.
With the $555 million in revenue from the sales tax and budget cuts, we can make some changes now contained in Senate Bill 1. That bill will help upgrade technology in our schools so we will no longer rank behind Mississippi in our use of computer-assisted learning. It will create pre-kindergarten programs for disadvantaged 3-year-olds and effective dropout prevention programs.
It will pay for a facilities study so Texas can start helping school districts with construction and renovation, hopefully reducing the burden on local property taxes. It will allow all districts access to enrichment funds rather than just the wealthy districts.
I wish we could prepare our children for the competition they will face in the 21st century without more money. The fact is we cannot. We must give schools, particularly the poorest ones, the dollars for basic improvements. Then we must demand excellence from our schools.
The bill takes great steps toward excellence and accountability. It will reward schools that are successfully preparing our children for the future.
It will reduce paperwork and the rules and regulations that make our system of public education a bureaucratic nightmare. It will encourage innovation through grants to promising programs.
The Edgewood decision has given us a rare opportunity to build one of the nation’s finest public education systems. If Senate Bill 1 becomes law we will have a school finance system that will be equitable and equal to the challenge of the next century. This is our opportunity to give our children a top-quality education. They deserve no less.
