Reflections on State Funding Formulas

As part of the reading for this week, I reviewed the TEA publication, School Finance 101. It was a very helpful look into how we receive the monies our districts use to fund our schools. For years, I have listened to my school board president talk about how unfair, inequitable, and unequal funding of schools continues to be – even after law suits and legislation designed to address the inherent problems in the current laws. I have also listened to the complicated briefings from our Executive Director of finance explaining the newest formulas the state is using to decide on our level of state funding. I have watched a school board make decisions to call for bond elections in a tough economical time when our district is growing and needs more facilities. And I have watched the board make very sound and educated decisions to manage our available funds in a responsible and frugal manner. Our district has had very effective leadership who have listened to the advice of skilled financial advisors and we have been fortunate to thrive even in difficult times. I am not sure I completely understood the crisis. This week’s learning has revealed to me how complex and difficult the position of our district leadership has become in managing our finances.

     Our experience with the state revenue shortfall this year and the resulting wrangling in the state legislature over just how much to cut education for the next two years has left me craving information on school finance so this class and this discussion is so appropriate to the times. After reading the reflections of other members of the cohort, reading articles about the funding crisis and reviewing the history, I feel like I have a better understanding of the truly unfair nature of the way we fund schools. I also have a better understanding of the complex nature of creating a fair system to fund schools. It seems like even the most fair system imaginable will also have shortfalls that effect some districts. Even if districts across the state receive an equal amount of money to spend on each student’s education each year, will that result in an equitable education for every student in Texas?  Will schools in the inner cities or schools in rural West Texas, where the cost of providing an education is so different, be able to accomplish the same educational goals and affect the same level of achievement from their diverse student populations? It is easy – and correct – to say that schools are not funded fairly across the state. And it is easy – and correct – to say that the system needs to be fixed. It is more difficult to actually fix the system. The political system that is charged with establishing a system to adequately, equitably, and equally fund education is also charged with the angst of advocating for each individual legislator’s constituents. This week’s learning has caused me to realize that each school district leader has to operate within the limits set by the legislature, that each school district leader has to advocate for the cause of fair funding of education across the state, and that each school district leader has to understand how to get the most out of the changing formulas for funding in order to advocate for the students in his/her own district.