Texplainer: Has State Spending on Schools Increased?
Hey, Texplainer: I keep hearing that the money the state spends on public education has increased over the past decade. But the ruling in the school finance trial said Texas schools are underfunded. Who is right?
State district Judge John Dietz declared the Texas school finance system unconstitutional on Monday. He ruled in favor of more than 600 school districts that sued after lawmakers in 2011 slashed $5.4 billion in funding just as the state transitioned to a rigorous new student assessment and accountability system.
The state will appeal the ruling, most likely to the Texas Supreme Court, once ...
Comments (19)
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
James Golsan, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Rick Perry and anyone else who argues that funding has doubled is a liar. They consistently cherry pick meaningless data to make their ideological point. A favorite is taking the aggregate amount spent on education and saying it's a lot of money. Another is saying the education budget is "49% of state spending." Those tell you nothing. Dietz cut through all the lies and talking points of the liars about public ed. If you want an educated population, you have to spend. More failing charter schools and more fraudulent private schools is not the answer. We need to support our public schools with adequate funding so that they can perform their Constitutional function. Funny how the tea party whack jobs talk about the original intent of the Constitution, but on this they ignore the original State Constitution.
eyeswideopen
I'm on the fence on this one until I find out who's telling the truth. I will say this...$11k+ is a lot of money to be spending on a student for the results we are seeing. Compare this figure to what other countries are spending that are scoring much higher than us on testing. How do you "we're not spending enough" people respond?
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
The figure you refer to is again very misleading. It include both facility construction costs and debt service. Due to the large numbers of students entering the school system every year, it is necessary to build facilities. Including those costs in the figure is like spending $1 billion dollars building a refinery and calculating costs for refining a barrel of oil over one year. If you do that, then what you spend refining a barrel of oil exceeds the cost of the oil by many times. You amortize those costs over the lifetime of the facility, which in the case of school buildings is 50 years. The actual cost spent educating students in the public school system is around $8500.00 per year. Considering the requirement to educate anyone who walks in the door, the public schools do a phenomenal job at minimal cost.
Ann Sutherland
I recommend the data be presented using general fund dollars and current enrollment. If readers wish to consider grant funding and construction, these data should be presented separately. It is true that the cost of new facilities should be evaluated over the life of the facility. Also, grant funds are targeted to special populations. The equity of these expendures would have to be evaluated based on the target populations.
Ann Sutherland, Ph.D.
Trustee, Fort Worth ISD District 6
www.sutherlandforschools.org
Bill Smith
Would definitely help to break out capital expeditures for facilities separately. For those of you who want to do the math, according to the inflation calculator at http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/, the Consumer Price Index rose about 30% from 2001 to 2013; about 25% from 2003, and about 22% from 2004. If the student body rose rose from 4.3M to 5M, that's a 16% increase. I think that suggests, ignoring inflation, you would need 16% more in non-facilities spending in 2013 than in 2003. Adjusting for inflation, you would need 45% more non-facilities spending 2013 than in 2003.
Bill Smith
... that ignores the grant funding that Ann Sutherland mentioned.
eyeswideopen
Good info. Thanks.
Two other questions...why do we spend so much on building fancy school structures instead of functional, and even @ $8500 per student, why are we getting the same bang for our buck that other countries are?
With regards to the later, how politically correct can you be here? We all know the answer/s.
eyeswideopen
That should, of course, been "why aren't....".
Stuart Greenfield
Have you guys ever tallied the times the TPPF, et al have presented incorrect data or analysis, e.g., replacing the property tax w/ an increased sales tax, http://www.texasfiscal.info/Comeonguys.pdf ; not expanding Medicaid, http://www.texaspolicy.com/press/statement-regarding-new-texas-impact-analysis-expanding-medicaid-coverage , which would provide the state a 500% return on investment? Yet, even after their erroneous analysis, you rush to ask for them to comment on an issue, even when the information they provide you is in error. Every principles of economics students knows one uses real values to compare economic data over time, shouldn't the "learned folks" at TPPF be held to the same standard I expect from my principles students. The Khan Academy has a video on real and nominal GDP, https://www.khanacademy.org/science/macroeconomics/gdp-topic/real-nominal-gdp-tutorial/v/real-gdp-and-nominal-gdp which I hope assists the folks at TPPF .
Bill Smith
@eyeswideopen Can you be more explicit about what you mean by fancy school structures vs functional school structures? Can you cite some specific examples?
Luisa Inez Newton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Let's see, can we juxtapose photos of a classroom in Brownsville alongside a classroom in Highland Park or RIver Oaks?
Bambi Clark via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Thank you because MQS BS gets old.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The judge/court is right.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And we wonder why Texas is at the bottom of the list in education.
eyeswideopen
Bill, look around. Fancy instead of functional is everywhere. There are less expensive alternatives to most school buildings being constructed...I bet this is true in the Valley, as well.
Scott Chase via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Even if it's true, the state constitution says our education system has to be adequate and efficient. The court found neither is true, despite the evidence of $ spent that the state presented.
Proud Texan
Eyeswideopen - buildings are voted on and paid for by local voters/communities. If they want to have buildings they are proud of, rather than concrete tilt wall prison construction, that's their choice. State money doesn't go towards facilities.
I guess the state could sell the State Capitol building and start meeting in a screened in porch in a trailer park and the Governor could sell his mansion and move to the same trailer park. What the heck? They're functional, right?
We get less/different bang for our buck than other countries in part because we educate ALL kids and we have the shortest school day of anywhere in the developed world. Most countries go to school at least 30 days more than our schools. 30 days x 10 years equals a LOT more time in the classroom.
eyeswideopen
Well look at Han's and Dr. Sutherland's posts, PT. they both reference construction costs contributing to the $11+K being a skewed figure. Which is it? You can't have it both ways.
Jaxon Heath
Once again, please remember that in the USA we educate EVERY child. They may not speak english, may be learning or emotionally disabled, homeless, mentally retarded, etc...but they all get to come to school. Schools in Finland, Germany, etc do not operate this way. Students in those countries are tested and then tracked. Not everyone there has the opportunity for college. By comparing US schools to other countries, it is apples to oranges...but Bill Hammond, Rick Perry, Dan Patrick and Pearson don't care...they just see MONEY for private schools.