Thread: Inflation added to illegals breaking our schools

May 12, 2008, 1:54AM
Schools say inflation puts them at risk
To protect jobs, campuses, Texas' funding system needs to be revamped, educators say


By GARY SCHARRER
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

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Blogging Houston education AUSTIN — The school funding system approved by Texas lawmakers two years ago provides no new money to cover rising costs — especially for fuel, utilities and health insurance — and officials warn the plan's tax revenue straightjacket will allow inflation to push some school districts into bankruptcy.

At-risk districts, generally, will find a way to make it for the next school year, but many face horror situations in a few years unless legislators dramatically change the school funding system again, and soon.

Take the Houston-area Spring Branch Independent School District. Its budget projections show the district's current $58 million reserve fund will slide $68 million into the red within four years.

Unless a fix is enacted during next year's legislative session, school districts will be faced with difficult choices, including closing campuses and firing teachers, said Mike Falick, president of the Spring Branch school board.

"It's an untenable system. No business in the world would be able to survive with fuel, health insurance and salary increases and a flat revenue source," Falick said. "It's not sustainable.

Some school districts eventually will face "insolvency, some in a shorter time than others," he said.

Humble Independent School District is about two years away from insolvency, Superintendent Guy Sconzo said. It will cover a $7 million budget deficit this year and a projected $23 million deficit next year by dipping into its $53 million reserve fund.

Humble ISD has cut spending by $17.5 million since 2002, Sconzo said, but is struggling with inflation and enrollment growth. Each new student costs the district about $6,800, but it gets only $4,937 from all sources to educate that student, he said.

"As we reduce more, we get on the road of becoming Minimum ISD. We will be able to comply and meet state laws and regulations, but we can't do anything more than that because we can't afford to," Sconzo said.

State leaders defend the current system but will consider the school districts' complaints. The 2-year-old reforms achieved unprecedented funding equity for Texas public schools while shifting about a third of the tax burden away from local property taxpayers, said Allison Castle, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry.

"It is important to remember that school districts and school boards have local control over setting their own budgets," she said. "It is up to the local school boards and districts to determine how best to spend the funds."


Options limited
House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, said inflation has had a significant impact on public schools in his home district, especially in transportation and energy costs.

"For more than 60 years we have generally required school districts to cut spending or raise taxes to deal with inflationary pressures," he said. "I continue to believe that a long-term solution for public school finance will require updating the distribution formulas and re-evaluating these long-standing practices."

Craddick appointed a special legislative panel to explore education problems and said he expects they will be a high legislative priority in 2009.

Responding to a Texas Supreme Court order to reduce the system's reliance on school property taxes, the Legislature created a new business tax, paid for a teacher salary increase and financed a school dropout program.

The new system allows school boards to raise their maintenance-and-operation tax rates by 4 cents per $100 property valuation and to ask voters for an additional rate increase — up to 13 cents per $100 — for discretionary expenses. But school officials say they need the extra money to cover basic expenses, such as soaring gas prices.

Money for public schools is pegged on what districts were getting per student in 2006, called "target revenue" in school finance jargon, and officials complain those amounts are arbitrary, punishing some districts and rewarding others without rhyme or reason.

School officials also are miffed that the state benefits from rising property values. Instead of school districts keeping extra revenue from appraisal increases, the state subtracts that amount from its education funding to those districts. The only extra money for school districts goes to cover student enrollment increases.

Developing a permanent cost-of-living index to help schools cope with annual inflation will be a top priority next year, said Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, chairman of the House Select Committee on Higher and Public Education Finance.

Lawmakers also will consider allowing tax revenue from property value increases to stay in school districts, he said.

Some school officials contend the state should spend at least $4 billion of a projected $10.7 billion budget surplus next year on public education.

Perry's spokeswoman declined to respond. A spokeswoman for Craddick said budget priorities wouldn't be established until January, when the surplus is more certain.

Last year, 107 school districts succeeded in raising their tax rates in elections, of 132 that tried, Smith said. Many went up to the maximum $1.17 per $100 tax rate. It's only a matter of time before school districts run out of capacity again, making those tax rate elections "a short-term buying of time," he said.

Houston ISD officials "are finding a way to make it" through the 2008-09 budget, district chief financial officer Melinda Garrett said.

"We need the school finance formulas updated to reflect the actual cost of educating students in 2008 to include increased costs for inflation (to cover) fuel, gasoline, health insurance and for increased academic expectations, programs needed to close the achievement gap," Garrett said.


HISD must share revenue
Houston ISD recently became a property wealthy school district, which requires it to share its tax revenue with poor school districts. That obligation will be an ongoing concern, Garrett said, because "as our wealth continues to grow, our recapture will increase."

Schools are being reimbursed "on costs that reflect 1987 prices," said Houston school board member Manuel Rodriguez Jr.

Houston's Cypress-Fairbanks is also on the ropes. Its $4,489 per student revenue target is the lowest in the Houston area — and nearly $800 less per student than what the Katy school district gets.

Superintendent David Anthony said it must cut $23 million, which means dropping at least 350 employees ranging from assistant superintendents to teacher aides, and creating larger class sizes in some schools. The district's fuel costs have jumped from $3.2 million last year to a projected $6.8 million next year.

"I'm very anxious about it," Anthony said, noting that Cypress-Fairbanks teachers, students and parents have worked together to produce significant gains in test scores and academic achievement.

"And now I'm having to dismantle the very thing that resulted in those gains. That's what is extremely frustrating," Anthony said.

gscharrer@express-news.net


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5771565.html

Most of the comments to the article want to cut everything but the ILLEGAL'S "education" programs!

Cut the "education" programs for the ILLEGALS and their Anchor Babies! The ILLEGALS have their own program starting in pre-kindergarten through the 5th grade, seven years, and most do not learn English. But the Feds and State of Texas continue to flood the school system with "our" money.

How much money would be saved in the state, if we didn't educate children in Spanish?

Dixie

Most of the comments to the article want to cut everything but the ILLEGAL'S "education" programs!

Exactly. They are cutting things from my daughters school in Florida. All the programs for honors students, I think 57 teachers are going, the programs that help kids qualify for scholarships...which ticks her off since she has taken advanced classes to hopefully qualify for these things and now the program will be gone. Many of her friends are dropping out and taking classes at the Jr.College to get their diploma because it's just not worth staying. For what? Cost them I think 10 bucks to go to the football games etc. Anything kids had as far as their "social" memories are so expensive they can't afford to participate anymore.

Angers me because the ones who value the education are having it taken away, while others are afforded it all and don't apprecitate it.

Something that most ISD's could to to cut cost is start eliminating some of this high salaries at the top. Houston ISD has 127 people that are making in excess of $100K and a superintendent that makes in excess of $450K. Katy ISD and Cy-Fair have the same issues. Houston ISD also just spend 3 million on repairs to a middle school this year and now they are considering tearing it down and rebuilding it.

Its wasted funds on special programs and the irresponsible waste of taxpayers money that is causing our schools to have money problems. The solution is always the same, cut back on those who are in the trenches educating our children, put more kids in a class and ask taxpayers to give more money.

Originally Posted by lccat

Most of the comments to the article want to cut everything but the ILLEGAL'S "education" programs!

Cut the "education" programs for the ILLEGALS and their Anchor Babies! The ILLEGALS have their own program starting in pre-kindergarten through the 5th grade, seven years, and most do not learn English. But the Feds and State of Texas continue to flood the school system with "our" money.

If they did that they would be RACIEST and no sticking up for the RIGHTS of these people. They will DEMAND, that they are taught in spanish, and they DEMAND that they learn about how AMERICANS took their land, and they will DEMAND that they are TAUGHT from their history books.
Instead of George Washington was the first president they will say Flilipo Garcio was the first president here and then the AMERICANS took over and stold their land.

Originally Posted by koobster

Originally Posted by lccat

Most of the comments to the article want to cut everything but the ILLEGAL'S "education" programs!

Cut the "education" programs for the ILLEGALS and their Anchor Babies! The ILLEGALS have their own program starting in pre-kindergarten through the 5th grade, seven years, and most do not learn English. But the Feds and State of Texas continue to flood the school system with "our" money.

If they did that they would be RACIEST and no sticking up for the RIGHTS of these people. They will DEMAND, that they are taught in spanish, and they DEMAND that they learn about how AMERICANS took their land, and they will DEMAND that they are TAUGHT from their history books.
Instead of George Washington was the first president they will say Flilipo Garcio was the first president here and then the AMERICANS took over and stold their land.

Actually it would not be considered racist to cut program benefitting no one but illegal aliens. They would have to prove that being an illegal alien IS a race, in order for it to be racist. If you equate illegal aliens with being only spanish speaking people, then that could be considered racist.

I think only people who pay taxes to that school district are entitled to have their kids educated there. Anyone who pays a mortgage or rent would be paying the taxes. HOWEVER, multiple families sharing ONE home are NOT paying school taxes for every child in that home and should not be permitted to enroll their kids!

Many elections also had school district tax increases (click here) on the ballot. Generally, from what I've seen, property school taxes will rise from 10-30% and many of those are districts currently experiencing massive increases in illegal alien populations, e.g., Houston. The Klein ISD increase is the equivalent of $320 for every man woman and child in the entire city. The link here has some of the best comments and it's clear the folks are outraged -- as they should be. Assuming we have more than 250,000 illegal alien students in Texas, and assuming the cost per student approximates $8,000, the total savings could easily be $2 billion annually!

I've found no one in my circle of friends who fully understands the school tax law. Talk about a complex law, good grief! Just the assessments are complicated enough, but the squirming allowed in the future seems ridiculous. This massive problem cries out for privatization. Take Humble ISD in the linked article, for example. Seems they tagged the community for a $245 million bond, raising the school tax rate 5.67%! Goddamiteydamm, they're already whining they'll be bankrupt in two years! WTF? If Texas doesn't react immediately, the monarchical school districts, all by themselves, will implant our political landscape with full-scale socialism. And don't think for a second that we don't already practice the Robin Hood system nationwide. It's political sleight of hand but also outrageous socialism.