By State Sen. Kirk Watson
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Everybody -- everybody -- knows our school finance system is broken. But
theres a lack of political will to do anything about it until the Texas Supreme Court rules in a sweeping lawsuit brought by two-thirds of the school districts. Oddly theres
even a lack of will to begin discussing the problems.
Under the best of circumstances it wouldnt be an easy task to craft a school finance system for such a large diverse state. The challenge will be doubly difficult this time around because weve lost a lot of institutional memory lately and
legislative amnesia seems to have already set in at the Texas Capitol.
Thats why I think we need to start talking about the problems right now. Yesterday I filed
a package of bills aimed at jump-starting the discussion.
My bills address some fundamental problems that can be tackled during this legislative session regardless of the lawsuit and help school districts sooner.
For example the transportation allotment was created in 1984 as a way to assist schools with the cost of getting kids to school. The transportation allotment hasnt been changed since wait for it 1984 and now covers only about
one-third of the cost. Every dollar spent by a local district on transportation is money taken from educating a child in the classroom. So my proposal is to split the tab and call it even.
Another proposal is to update the Cost of Education Index. This is meant to help account for variations in hiring costs between districts. In some communities it costs more to attract teachers because of the cost of living or the location. This index hasnt been updated in almost a quarter of a century.
Its a fundamental part of the way we fund education and its no longer based in reality.
Its silly that our state relies upon decades-old methods and information to pay for schools today.
This guy thinks so too.
