“$9B more for schools, raises for state workers in two-year Texas budget approved by House panel,” read the Dallas Morning News headline over a story by Robert T. Garrett.
It seems that new legislative class after new legislative class has as a primary objective to prove the axiom that “the more things change the more they stay the same.”
it is playing out as it has throughout Texas history that both political parties’ idea of “reforming,” “fixing,” or “simplifying” school finance is to hand over to school districts a bunch more of our money
Once again, it is playing out as it has throughout Texas history that both political parties’ idea of “reforming,” “fixing,” or “simplifying” school finance is to hand over to school districts a bunch more of our money, in a flush budget year, to buy nothing but a small amount of temporary peace.
This move never “fixes” school finance and it does nothing to seriously simply what is a convoluted system that last legislative session was constantly called out by legislators as needing simplification and transparency.
This session there is almost no talk of simplification and transparency. Even the talking points list put out by House Bill 3’s backers contains only one mention of simplification and that related to busing costs.
This all begs the question: Were any of them serious two years ago about the need for major simplification and transparency of the school funding formulas? If so, what happened to that commitment?
My guess is that, as always going back many decades, it’s just easier to again move things around to a point where enough districts get enough new money that the “problem” goes away for a few years. Instead of the hard work of simplification and transparency, they’ve opted for the easy work of handing other people’s money to a political squeaky-wheel.
“Fix” for school finance is the same old non-fix both parties repeat
It seems that new legislative class after new legislative class has as a primary objective to prove the axiom that “the more things change the more they stay the same.”
it is playing out as it has throughout Texas history that both political parties’ idea of “reforming,” “fixing,” or “simplifying” school finance is to hand over to school districts a bunch more of our money
This move never “fixes” school finance and it does nothing to seriously simply what is a convoluted system that last legislative session was constantly called out by legislators as needing simplification and transparency.
This session there is almost no talk of simplification and transparency. Even the talking points list put out by House Bill 3’s backers contains only one mention of simplification and that related to busing costs.
This all begs the question: Were any of them serious two years ago about the need for major simplification and transparency of the school funding formulas? If so, what happened to that commitment?
My guess is that, as always going back many decades, it’s just easier to again move things around to a point where enough districts get enough new money that the “problem” goes away for a few years. Instead of the hard work of simplification and transparency, they’ve opted for the easy work of handing other people’s money to a political squeaky-wheel.
UPDATE: While House Bill 3 would prevent recapture from increasing, it would not “reduce recapture 38 percent” from current levels.