Savor the irony. Today, legislators face a deadline on school finance not of their own making. On July 26th the Travis County District Court is set to hear West-Orange Cove v. Alanis, the lawsuit brought by nearly 300 Texas school districts alleging chronic under-funding by the state.
As originally filed three years ago by the wealthiest districts, the suit alleged that the wealth-equalizing “Robin Hood” system deprived them of meaningful local control. As of late last year, however, the suit has been joined by hundreds of poor and mid-wealth districts, and the focus has shifted away from eliminating recapture. The litigation now asks the state to step up it’s share of school funding.
To appease districts now, says David Thompson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, legislators will have to decrease reliance on local property taxes and make up the loss with state money, as well as substantially increase the amount of money that goes into the system. And, Thompson says, they’ll have to do it without increasing the funding gap between rich and poor schools.
No strategy offered to date would seem to meet the suit’s requirements. The governor proposed a statewide tax, capped at $1.40 per $100 of valuation, on commercial property; local governments would keep revenues from residential property, capped at $1.25. This plan essentially excuses so-called “mansion districts,”—those whose property wealth is in high-dollar homes—from the equalization system. Under the plan, the ritzy Highland Park district would keep $13,900 per student, while kids in Dallas ISD’s largely poor and minority schools would get $179.
If legislators were hoping to derail the lawsuit by bribing wealthy districts to drop their case, they’ll be disappointed.
“We’ve had these conversations, and we’re all in this together,” Thompson says. “The idea that you’re going to peel off particular groups, we’re going to resist that. You’re going to see a proposal that serves all districts equally or you’re going to see the lawsuit move forward.”
So as long as both the wealthy and poor districts stick together, it's going to be even harder for Tom DeLay's puppets to fulfill their primary goal of further enriching their Enron-esque pals. Now for the editorial.
It’s easy to forget that there are children involved in the ongoing special session on school finance. Talk by the leadership at the Capitol seems mostly focused on how to further shift the tax burden from the wealthy to the poor. It’s clear the main priority for much of the Texas GOP is property tax relief. In most speeches, it comes first and the kids trail second like an afterthought. The party’s suburban base and some of its biggest campaign contributors bet on lower property taxes back in the 2002 election, and payday has finally come. For the governor who called the session without the consensus he declared a prerequisite, this exercise appears to be all about spin for the 2006 election.
But before you can give to Paul, you have to rob Peter. The way it’s practiced in 2004, Texas school funding is like a balloon. Want to lower property taxes but can’t afford politically or legally to take money away from schools? Press down, and out the difference comes as regressive sales and gambling taxes. A perfect example of who could soon be paying for public education in Texas can be found in a House proposal to tax coin-operated laundry machines.
And what about those children? A July court date looms for a lawsuit against the state by property wealthy and poor school districts. They demand an increase in state education funding. And yet, despite the deadline, GOP leaders lack the will to provide more revenue to invest in the future of Texas.
Of course, they’ve been flunking that one for months. During the regular session, this Legislature slashed $350 million worth of education funding out of the budget. The cuts included money for at-risk third graders, the Reading/Math/Science Initiative, and a program that removes disruptive students from regular classrooms but still educates them.
The problem with taking money from the poor is that they don’t have much of it. That leaves business taxes. But these days, Texas corporations occupy a rarefied perch far removed from the GOP’s tiny revenue-raising universe. If only those working families just scraping by could collectively scratch up enough to donate generously to Gov. Rick Perry and hire a lobbyist like Buddy Jones—maybe then they would have a chance.
And those children? Nearly half of their teachers want to leave the classroom, according to a recent study by Sam Houston State University. Schools throughout the system are already understaffed. Estimates put teacher vacancies as high as 50,000. Add the stress of a single indicator test that determines the fate of both pupil and teacher. Throw in teaching to the test which demolishes the creativity in learning that makes the profession so attractive in the first place. If all of that wouldn’t motivate a teacher to flee the state, during the regular session this Legislature hacked the health insurance program for teachers too. It also helped push the teacher retirement system toward insolvency [See “First the Children, Then Their Teachers,” March 28, 2003].
And those children? Well, when a proposal to tax pollution that is sickening kids across the state at this very moment is laughed off the stage, need we ask that question anymore?
The 78th Legislature has shown itself to be a lousy steward of the environment and to be partial to a stacked system of justice. The Lege declared war on low-income children, with 130,000 to date off the health insurance rolls. Now, it’s side-stepping a real crisis in education funding to shift the tax burden away from the rich and powerful.
That has to be at least a trifecta. If only it was taxable under the new plan.
