Legislators Debate Formula for Public School Funding (TX)
June 1, 2011
Faced with the likely loss of more than $23 million in state funds, the Brownsville Independent School District is working on a draft budget for next year even as the state Senate meets in special session to make drastic cuts to public school funding.
Gov. Rick Perry on Monday called the Legislature back into special session after it failed to pass an education bill just before the regular session ended. Perry recalled lawmakers because they failed to pass a bill that would have legally allowed the state to pay public schools $4 billion less than under current law. The bill was tied to the budget in a way that without it, the state could not dis-tribute about $37 billion to public schools.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, effectively ki lled the bill late Sunday night with a filibuster that lasted past midnight. The bill the Senate was debating at session’s end effectively would have cut $23 million in formula funding from BISD, as well as slashing funds for all-day pre-kindergarten, teacher incentives, at-risk programs for middle school students and other programs, state Rep. René Oliveira said.
“I continue to be outraged, and I predict we will end up in the courthouse,” Oliveira said Tuesday in Brownsville. He said the edu-cation bill as it now stands would “cause the equity gap between rich school districts and poor school districts to grow even more” — as much as $8,000 per child.
“It’s immoral,” he said. “It’s unconstitutional. Everyone should be treated the same no matter where they live in Texas. The next question is going to be what school districts can do to survive.”
BISD was holding a budget meeting Tuesday afternoon to figure that out. The district’s fiscal year begins July 1, so its 2011-2012 budget must be completed by then. Already, the district is implementing an early-notification-of-resignation program that is ex-pected to save millions in payroll costs, among other money-saving measures.
Superintendent Brett Springston said the stalemate in Austin is causing concern in school districts around the state.
“Some are going with a six-month plan, some are going with 90 percent of last year’s funding. Everyone is apprehensive,” he said Tuesday. “We’ll be working on a draft budget tonight.”
Oliveira said the special session in Austin would cause debate to take place out in the open at a time when school administrators, teachers, parents, school board members and other interested parties can participate.
‘Backroom way’
The Senate bill “was done on the last day when it should been done a week ago,” he said. “This was not done in a transparent way. It was done in a closed- door, backroom way. At least now people will know about it.”
Oliveira wasn’t holding out much hope that the bill that finally passes would be much better than the measure blocked by Davis’ filibuster. The House earlier passed an education bill that would result in $17 million in cuts to BISD. The Senate must now pass its own bill. The two must be reconciled before Perry signs the final version.
“The Republican leadership is bragging about how they cut over $15 billion in funding for Medicare, Health and Human Services, public education and higher education,” Oliveira said. “They appear to be unwilling to compromise. There’s always a chance, but they’re dead set on shrinking government, which is a tragedy for an area like ours that clearly needs the help of the government in health care and education.”
He said from what he’s hearing, legislators could be voting on the matters as early as next week.
The Legislature also failed to pass a bill that would save money for the state on Medicaid, the government’s health insurance pro-gram for the poor, by expanding the privatization of Medicaid services in Texas and creating incentives to improve the quality of care.
Though Perry called for the special session to address changes to school funding and Medicaid, he could add items to the agenda or call another special session to consider other legislation.