Budget Shortfall Could Cost Texas Schools Millions (TX)

September 27, 2010

As the single biggest consumer of state money, the Texas public education system stands to lose millions of dollars as the state grapples with a looming budget shortfall.

Education Commissioner Robert Scott has suggested more than $260 million in cuts from the state’s almost $40 billion education budget for the next two years. Some of those would reach into the classroom, eliminating money for new science labs, textbooks and teacher development. Those recommendations have infuriated teachers.

Gov. Rick Perry’s "budgetary policies are wrecking the public schools and jeopardizing our children’s future," said Rita Haecker, president of the Texas State Teachers Association. "The governor can talk all he wants about school savings … but most districts and educators are already stretched so thin, there is little, if anything, left to save."

The budget proposal for the Texas Education Agency would ax millions of dollars for a teacher mentoring program and other continuing education opportunities for teachers. It also would cut $35 million that was set aside in the previous budget to help schools build new science labs to go along with a new requirement that high school students take four years of science classes.

Purchases delayed

Plans to buy new science and English textbooks also are being delayed, a decision that could leave many students with decade-old books.

Scott, who was appointed by Perry, has asked lawmakers to spare state funding for prekindergarten programs and a teacher incentive pay program that Perry has championed.

The state budget shortfall will be the driving force behind almost every decision the Legislature makes when it convenes in January. From state parks and highways to health care programs for the poor and people with disabilities, state agencies are bracing for the fiscal bloodletting.

Much like the state, school districts are facing declining budgets of their own. Many superintendents say they’re digging into reserves and cutting basic programs and staffing to keep up with rising costs.

The hatchet is falling at a time when experts say the school financing system in the state needs a major overhaul to make sure schools keep pace with costs of booming enrollment and higher costs on such necessities as utility bills and transportation.

Any efforts to fix the system probably would take more money — money the state won’t have this year.

In some cases, the struggles are exacerbated by a 2006 law that froze state aid to districts without allowing for the costs of changing demographics or inflation.

Winners and losers

Opponents say that provision, which was intended to keep wealthier school districts from taking a hit in the amount of state aid they receive under revised funding formulas, has built arbitrary winners and losers into the system, violating a requirement that school funding be largely equal among districts.

(Although many state agencies have been required to cut 10 percent from their 2012-13 budget requests, budget leaders made an exception for direct state aid to local school districts – which makes up nearly 70 percent of public education spending.)

Texas is facing a shortfall that budget officials say could reach $21 billion. The recession has pushed state tax receipts down, but the state is also on the hook to fill a hole of about $11 billion left by federal stimulus money and other state savings that were used last year but are no longer available.

Added cost pressures from increased enrollment in public schools – which now have about 4.8 million students – and health care programs and decreased property values all contribute to projections of a multibillion-dollar hole.

Because the Texas Constitution tightly restricts government borrowing, lawmakers will have to make up for the shortfall by cutting government programs and services, raising taxes and fees or other accounting maneuvers.