Educators Say System is on Brink

AUSTIN–Increasing expenses coupled with an inability to

increase revenues could lead the Texas public school system to its

doom, according to warnings issued Thursday by two education groups

pushing for more funding for schools.

In a report aimed at Texas lawmakers in advance of the 2003

legislative session, the Texas Association of School Boards and the

Texas Association of School Administrators say that the school

funding system cannot continue absorbing the escalating expenses of

enrollment, utilities, fuel, insurance and supplies.

Key lawmakers said there is little chance of a school finance

overhaul in the upcoming session. But without more help from the

state, “Texas’ entire public school system as we know it today will

collapse,” says the “Report Card on Public Education,” which the

organizations began distributing this week.

“As those who are closest to the education system, we are trying

to call attention now to the fact that Texas education, as

successful as it has been in recent years, is running headlong

toward disaster,” the report continues. “No public school district

will escape. … The scenario we describe is imminent. It will

transpire over the next two or three years. This report card is not

an exaggeration.”

But Peggy Venable, director of Texas Citizens for a Sound

Economy, questioned the organizations’ conclusions.

“The so-called report card … is long on hype and short on

reality,” Venable said. “The apocalyptic gloom-and-doom report

projects disaster in our schools but claims no responsibility by

the education community.”

The state’s $24 billion-a-year school funding system depends on

a combination of revenues from local school district property taxes

and revenues provided by the state. The organizations say that that

complicated system can’t meet increasing demands.

For instance, a tax cap limits the ability of local districts to

increase revenues through local property taxes. At the same time,

the state’s proportional share of funding for schools has decreased

through the years.

The groups say that districts could eventually begin making

severe cuts just as students begin taking new high-stakes tests.

Citing comments by Texas Education Agency Commissioner Felipe

Alanis, the groups say that test failures will increase.

“With classrooms that are overcrowded today and a growing

shortage of qualified teachers, Texas schools will become

increasingly ill-equipped to prepare students for the [new test],”

the organizations say. “As fall 2003 approaches, the problems will

spiral out of control. … If the Texas Legislature doesn’t come to

the rescue, the fate of Texas public schools will be doomed.”

An organization spokesman said the report is meant to widen

legislative and public support for education spending growth. The

organizations also call upon lawmakers to pledge support for such

increases.

Bill Miller, a spokesman for both organizations, said the

situation will only worsen if lawmakers wait beyond the 2003

session. Several lawmakers have said a sweeping funding overhaul is

unlikely next year given an expected multibillion-dollar budget

shortfall, as well as a possible change in political leadership.

Acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, architect of the school funding

system and the only lawmaker to propose a specific plan to overhaul

it, questioned whether the Legislature would ever act without the

threat of court action.

“We haven’t done it [overhaul the system] before — not until

the Supreme Court threatened to shut off all the funds and close

the schools,” said Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant. “What it will finally

take is for the political pain of not doing something to become

worse than the political pain of doing something.”

State Sen. Teel Bivins, co-chairman of the Joint Select

Committee on Public School Finance, also downplayed the possibility

of action in 2003. “Before we have a clear picture of the state’s

fiscal situation, it is impossible to predict what action the

Legislature will take,” said Bivins, R-Amarillo.