SHSBulldog00
09-22-2011, 04:52 PM
* School Finance: School Districts Sign Up to Sue State Over Insufficient and Unequal Funding
* High Stakes: What American Jobs Act Would Deliver to Texas School Districts
School-Finance Lawsuit(s) Coming: Even before recently enacted cuts of $5.4 billion in state aid to school districts, state spending for public education in Texas ranked near the bottom of national state-by-state rankings. As the new cuts strike home, school boards all over the state are passing resolutions committing their school districts to participate in a major new challenge to the constitutionality of the whole state system of school finance.
The legal challenge, spearheaded by the research and advocacy team at the Austin-based Equity Center, will attack the legislature’s school-finance actions on multiple fronts. For instance, districts by law are supposed to receive substantially equal revenue at similar tax rates. Yet gaps in funding of $1,500 per pupil are common, and the state is highly vulnerable on this equity front. The courts also have held that the state must ensure enough funding to provide all students with a “meaningful opportunity to acquire the essential knowledge and skills” called for in state curriculum standards. Especially in the wake of the funding cuts enacted this year, the state appears vulnerable on this issue of adequacy as well.
The lawsuit reportedly could be filed quite soon, within a matter of weeks. Another lawsuit challenging the state school-finance scheme may be filed as well, by a different constellation of school districts, with a primary focus on the adequacy issue.
High Stakes—What the American Jobs Act Could Mean for Your District: The school-finance experts at the Moak, Casey and Associates consulting firm in Austin have come up with some rough estimates of the amount of funding each Texas school district could receive under the American Jobs Act proposed by President Obama. These ballpark estimates indicate that the federal aid could substantially offset state cuts in education totaling $5.4 billion for fiscal 2012-2013. Districts in our state would receive roughly $2.2 billion in funds to save and create jobs, plus another $2.3 billion to upgrade school facilities.
Some examples of the projected district-by-district impact include these:
--Houston ISD would receive $355 million, including $125 million to save jobs;
--Dallas ISD would receive $277 million, including $97 million in job-saving aid;
--El Paso ISD would receive $116 million, including $40 million for jobs;
--San Antonio ISD would receive $109 million, including $37 million for jobs;
--Austin ISD would receive $102 million, including $41 million for jobs; and
--La Joya ISD would receive $57 million, including $19 million in job-saving aid.
To see what your district could receive, go to http://www.moakcasey.com/articles/viewarticledoc.aspx?AID=2617&DID=2579.
* High Stakes: What American Jobs Act Would Deliver to Texas School Districts
School-Finance Lawsuit(s) Coming: Even before recently enacted cuts of $5.4 billion in state aid to school districts, state spending for public education in Texas ranked near the bottom of national state-by-state rankings. As the new cuts strike home, school boards all over the state are passing resolutions committing their school districts to participate in a major new challenge to the constitutionality of the whole state system of school finance.
The legal challenge, spearheaded by the research and advocacy team at the Austin-based Equity Center, will attack the legislature’s school-finance actions on multiple fronts. For instance, districts by law are supposed to receive substantially equal revenue at similar tax rates. Yet gaps in funding of $1,500 per pupil are common, and the state is highly vulnerable on this equity front. The courts also have held that the state must ensure enough funding to provide all students with a “meaningful opportunity to acquire the essential knowledge and skills” called for in state curriculum standards. Especially in the wake of the funding cuts enacted this year, the state appears vulnerable on this issue of adequacy as well.
The lawsuit reportedly could be filed quite soon, within a matter of weeks. Another lawsuit challenging the state school-finance scheme may be filed as well, by a different constellation of school districts, with a primary focus on the adequacy issue.
High Stakes—What the American Jobs Act Could Mean for Your District: The school-finance experts at the Moak, Casey and Associates consulting firm in Austin have come up with some rough estimates of the amount of funding each Texas school district could receive under the American Jobs Act proposed by President Obama. These ballpark estimates indicate that the federal aid could substantially offset state cuts in education totaling $5.4 billion for fiscal 2012-2013. Districts in our state would receive roughly $2.2 billion in funds to save and create jobs, plus another $2.3 billion to upgrade school facilities.
Some examples of the projected district-by-district impact include these:
--Houston ISD would receive $355 million, including $125 million to save jobs;
--Dallas ISD would receive $277 million, including $97 million in job-saving aid;
--El Paso ISD would receive $116 million, including $40 million for jobs;
--San Antonio ISD would receive $109 million, including $37 million for jobs;
--Austin ISD would receive $102 million, including $41 million for jobs; and
--La Joya ISD would receive $57 million, including $19 million in job-saving aid.
To see what your district could receive, go to http://www.moakcasey.com/articles/viewarticledoc.aspx?AID=2617&DID=2579.