Three+Events+in+Texas+School+Finance

In reviewing the literature and lecture, the three events that I found most interesting are Gilmer-Aiken Act, Edgewood v. Kirby and the "Robin Hood" system that was developed based upon the Texas Supreme Court ruling about the unconstitutionality of the finance system, and House Bills 1, 3, 4, and 5 that give us our current finance funding system.

The Gilmer-Aiken Act was the largest change to public education since the early part of the 1900's when compulsory attendance, a minimum of 175 school days per year, and free school books for students was adopted. The Texas Legislature passed the Gilmer-Aikin Act in 1949 and established the "Minimum Foundation Program" that created a funding system for Texas public schools based upon revenue from both state and local sources. It also formalized the school year and increased teacher salaries. The legislation reorganized the administration of public education by creating an elected State Board of Education that appointed a commissioner of education to administer the State Department of Education. It also consolidated the number of school districts from 4,500 to 2,900 to reduce a duplication of services. This event was chosen because it is the beginning of the Foundation Program that funds Texas schools. Prior to this Legislation state funding for public education came from the Permanent School fund established by the State Constitution. In addition, I chose this event because the commissioner of education had previously been an elected position and that did not guarantee that the commissioner was an educator who understood how to direct the State Department of Education.

The 1984 Edgewood v. Kirby lawsuit started a series of events that dramatically changed the finance system of Texas Public Schools. In 1989, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the finance system was unconstitutional and instructed the State Legislature to develop a new finance system that provided equal funding for every Texas school student across the State. House Bill 72 was developed to reduce the inequity among school districts. It was soon found to be inadequate by the courts and Senate Bill 1 was introduced to provide more money for equalization. The Texas Supreme Court struck down Senate Bill 1 and the Legislature then passed House Bill 351 in 1991 creating 188 County Education Districts that dealt with redistributing monies from state mandated property taxes to member districts. After the Supreme Court struck down HB 351, the Legislature then passed Senate Bill 7 that involved property tax recapture known as the "Robin Hood" plan which took money from wealthy districts and used it to fund poorer districts to improve equity in the funding system. This event was chosen because it was the beginning of a series of attempts by the Texas Legislature to address the inequity of public school financing. Prior to the lawsuit, courts had not determined that equity mean equal money, but the ruling in Edgewood v Kirby directly focused on equal monies for all students. The initial changes that were made did not fulfill equity Texas Supreme Court mandates and it took several attempts to develop a finance system that took money from the rich districts and gave it to the poor districts in an attempt to equalize the money available per student. The school districts with the influx of money were happy, those losing the money were unhappy, and unfortunately for the Legislature the problems of inequity were not solved. This event was chosen

In 2005, Travis County the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas School Finance System was unconstitutional. This ruling was based on the 2001 West Orange-Cove Consolidated ISD v Neeley case in which the plaintiffs argued the state's school finance system did not provide adequate and suitable education as outlined in the Texas Constitution. In addition, the Maintenance and Operations $1.50 tax cap created a de facto statewide property tax. House Bills 1, 3, 4, and 5 passed by the Legislature in 2006 restructured the Texas School Finance System by reducing the maintenance and operations tax rate to $1.00 for all Texas citizens and established a new business tax system designed to tax businesses who had not been paying school taxes. These House Bills also increased the tax on cigarettes, alcohol, and other items to provide more funding to Texas Public Schools. This event was chosen because House Bill 3646 passed in 2009 tied state funding increases to the statewide total property value growth so everyone will be affected equally. While the Legislature has attempted to develop a more equitable and adequate school finance system for all students in Texas, the system still does provide all school districts with equal funds to educate students.