Looks like the state of Texas may be getting an “F” for funding on its spending for primary and secondary schools. Texas was in court defending against a lawsuit comprising two-thirds of state school districts who have sued over $5.4 billion in cuts enacted during the 82nd biennial cycle. The litigation also challenges the new testing requirements to make standardized tests tougher. The schools are pushing back and refusing to “do more with less.” Four different coalitions of school districts, along with Texans for Real Efficiency and Equity in Education (TREEE—a group advocating for education reform) have challenged the state. The schools argue that by cutting spending and increasing test requirements, the state has overburdened public schools to the point where they are “hopelessly broken”.
The last time this landed in the Texas Supreme Court in 2005 it wasn’t pretty–the court held that Texas schools were not in compliance with state constitutional requirements for education because spending levels were not meeting minimum requirements. The same constitution that mandates the “maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools” under Article 7, also mandates under Article 3 that expenditures cannot exceed revenues.
Therein lies the dilemma.
The “No Child Left Behind” (2001) requires minimum proficiency levels to ensure quality schools. Schools have largely implemented the NCLB law by using tests to measure student success, and Texas is an example of a system that seems to be failing. The National Education Association shows Texas falling from 41st (2011) to 45th (2012) out of all the states and the District of Columbia with per student spending decreasing from $9,446 to $8,908. Additionally, the state has enacted new STARR tests (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) which strains precious resources given our need to provide additional monies to support testing for low-income and English language-learning students who tend to score lower on state exams.
What’s a state to do? Education becomes a political football because it is part of the state’s discretionary spending (funding which does not establish mandatory levels of funding). It seems unlikely Texas will do that unless ordered to take drastic measures by the courts, and that report card still hasn’t come out yet.
Texas Round-up
1) San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff squared off in a debate about whether the city should make taxpayers pay an additional 1/8th cent increase to the sales tax to fund pre-kindergarten programs. Doesn’t sound like much, but it maxes out the sales tax percentage that the state allows cities (8.25% of sales). Castro argues it will improve long-term education quality, and Wolff argues it is an unnecessary tax increase.
2) The Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, John Jay Myers, came out with his most expensive ad to date going after Democrat Paul Sadler and Republican Ted Cruz arguing that we need to get government out of people’s lives. Myers is also mad that he was left out of the U.S. Senate debate sponsored by WFAA-Dallas, and he has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
Lone Star News Review 