Local school officials knew of the struggling economy before the 81st Texas Legislature even began so theyre not surprised that little was done to help the school funding system across the state.
Theyre still disappointed though. Clayton Downing is the executive director for the Texas School Coalition (TSC) an organization that brings together independent school districts that have an interest in improving the school funding laws for all school districts. The coalition is composed of 105 Chapter 41" school districts -- districts that are considered property wealthy and have to send money back to the state -- in Texas including Lewisville ISD. The coalition had hoped for a handful of actions by the legislature this session to help with school funding including a change in the golden pennies" allotment. Under House Bill 1 from 2006 the M&O tax rate went down to $1 though the state allowed districts to go up to $1.17. Of that Chapter 41 districts get four free or golden pennies where they dont have to send that money back to the state. Downing said those four pennies have saved districts the last three years. But to go up the remaining $0.13 districts have to have an election for any amount. Downing said one problem with that is the expense of having an election plus the struggle to get voters to agree on it. Downing had hoped legislators would increase the number of golden pennies to six without having to have an election and for a while it looked like it might happen. A component of HB 1 featured a plan where two extra pennies would have been provided.
But Gov. Rick Perry had said he would veto it.
We were disappointed because in the beginning it looked like a lot of districts were going to get two extra pennies" said Karen Permetti LISD spokesperson. That would have meant $6 million for LISD. (Sen.) Florence Shapiro championed that to the end and we appreciate her efforts."
Some steps that were made however include raising the minimum amount of target revenue (amount districts are given annually for each student based on a formula) to $4800. Downing hopes that levels the field as he said there is a major disparity between what different school districts receive. LISD receives $5461 per student in target revenue each year but some districts had gotten as low as $3600.
Also part of HB 1 was an additional $1.9 billion in school funding though Downing said that isnt nearly enough.
It sounds like a lot but its really just a drop in the bucket for what we need" Downing said. There are 1041 districts in Texas and there are 4.5 million kids. So thats not a lot of money."
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Originally Published by Star Community Newspapers
