The expected entry of Houston Independent School District into the state’s Robin Hood funding system is prompting calls for changes that could benefit Texas City and Galveston school districts.
Texas City and Galveston already are considered property-wealthy districts and must send money to the state under the program.
Officials at the Texas City school district, which was declared a Chapter 41, or property-wealthy, district in 1993, have long argued that the state should take into consideration the district’s large population of students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, said David Thompson, a school finance expert and attorney who has represented the district.
In 1993-94, 40 percent of Texas City public schoolchildren were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, according to Texas Education Agency records. Last school year, almost 60 percent of the district’s schoolchildren qualified, records state.
Still, the district will send $11.7 million to the state to share with poorer districts. In the past two years, Texas City school district has sent $26 million to the state in Chapter 41 payments.
School officials in Houston will likely present the same argument about its economically disadvantaged student population — and probably its bilingual population, too — to state legislators in 2009, Thompson said.
Even though the Houston school district is considered property wealthy, more than 78 percent of its students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, according to education agency records.
And because Houston public school district is the largest in the state, its arguments could garner more attention from state lawmakers.
“If you like the canary in the mine shaft analogy, this is a really big canary,” Thompson said. “A lot of districts have been making this argument for years. Hopefully (Houston) can draw some attention to it.”
More Poor ‘Wealthy’ Districts
Twenty-two state representatives and five state senators represent portions of Houston’s public school district — a large voting block, said Rebecca Flores, the district’s director of government relations. She said the Houston district hopes to work with other property-wealthy districts to present a unified voice on reform.
“We’ll try to find as many districts in our same position and through the power of numbers get people to realize the impact these bills have on us,” she said.
According to the education agency, 208 property-wealthy districts are expected to pay $1.1 billion to the state this year.
The number of Chapter 41 districts has grown. In the mid-1990s, only 5 percent of Texas schoolchildren lived in wealthy districts.
Today, 15 percent of the state’s students live in property-wealthy districts, said Lynn Moak, a school finance expert and school consultant.
Many of those districts, like Galveston, Houston and Texas City, have student populations that are economically disadvantaged. For example, the Point Isabel public school district near Brownsville is a property-wealthy school district, although 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
School districts must send money back to the state if their total taxable wealth per student exceeds $374,200. Houston school officials will likely ask state legislators to revamp the formula to place more weight on low-income and bilingual students.
Local Schools Would Benefit
If the formula is revamped to give greater consideration to low-income and bilingual students, Texas City and Galveston public school districts would benefit. Both have growing low-income and bilingual populations.
“I would support any efforts by any district to reform the Robin Hood system so it accurately reflects each district’s tax revenue and expenses,” said Andy Mytelka, Galveston school board president.
“Right now, Galveston is having to send millions of dollars out of the district that we can desperately use.”
The pervasive thought is that the weights for low-income and bilingual students in the school finance formula are too low, Thompson said.
For example, the state adds a 20 percent weight to every low-income student. Some district and school finance officials have argued that low-income students should have up to a 50 percent weight.
“The state system includes weights to reflect a variety of different circumstances,” Thompson said. “But we haven’t looked at those in well over a decade. The general thought is the weights for bilingual and at-risk students are too low.
“What does it cost to get those kids to meet the higher standards the state is setting? Does it really cost 20 percent more to get a kid from a very impoverished background and a very disrupted home to meet the state standards? Or does it cost 50 percent more?”
‘It Increases Pressure’
Thompson said arguments about Robin Hood funding likely will spill over into discussions about revamping the entire school finance system.
“Robin Hood cannot be fixed in isolation,” he said. “If you think about it as an iceberg, 10 percent of the iceberg is out in the open, but 90 percent of the iceberg, the part that rips the guts out of ships, is under water. Recapture is that bit of the iceberg sticking up above the water.”
Moak said the school finance system should be reworked, and Houston might be the stimulus for change.
“As Houston and Dallas are, or are close to, paying out money, it does increase pressure on the system to change things,” he said.
“There’s been a great deal of interest in tax relief, but what we need is to update the formulas and make them realistic. Don’t’ treat just one problem. It’s time for a comprehensive overview of the whole system.”
