School finance

Changing the way public schools are funded is hard even when everyone agrees on the problem. But Texas lawmakers will first have to figure out if they're aiming to lower property taxes, increase spending on public education — or just change how the money is distributed.

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His pitch is one of a long list of recommendations a state school finance panel will send to lawmakers later this month.

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The campaigns were long and hard, and now we know the winners. Let's look at what they're in for once they take office in 2019.

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State lawmakers are loath to raise taxes, but they need to find money somewhere if they want to give local school property taxpayers a break — a primary goal for many of the state's top leaders.

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Bush presides over the School Land Board, which has feuded with the State Board of Education over the disbursement of hundreds of millions of dollars from Texas' education endowment.

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The pitch includes capping increases in districts' property tax revenue and financial incentives to improve school performance.

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A fresh update of a single budget chart shows who's paying for public education in Texas: More than half of the money comes from local property taxpayers, just over a third comes from the state, and the federal government spends about a dime of every dollar schools cost.

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Texas will argue Wednesday at a federal appeals court that its decision to decrease special education funding several years ago did not violate federal law.

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Early discussions about the next state budget include an old and politically hazardous debate: Property values are rising, meaning the local share of education spending will rise while the state share drops.

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In a preliminary budget request, the Texas Education Agency revealed it expects the state to put less money into public education next year because of fast-increasing local property values.

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Texas voters aren't satisfied with the state's handling of public education and don't always agree on whether paying for it should be a state or local duty, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

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Editor's note: If you'd like an email notice whenever we publish Ross Ramsey's column, click here. The political debates of this election year will foreshadow some of the issues you'll see when the Texas Legislature meets next year, but some of the best clues — sports gambling is one example — come from the financial advisers to public sector investors.

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Texas A&M University professor Lori Taylor stunned Kansas lawmakers by recommending they increase their school funding by 44 percent. But what does that mean for Texas?

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Glenn Hegar, the state's comptroller of public accounts, is warning lawmakers that Texas' bond ratings are at risk because of a couple of pending expensive problems. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

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As Texas' school finance commission is set to hold its next hearing, some members and policy experts are arguing the hearings seem set toward a predetermined outcome — making schools do more with the funding they have.

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A federal report said Texas policy on how to serve students with dyslexia violates federal law. State officials say the policy was originally created to address a gap in federal law.

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Lawmakers say local property taxes are getting too high. School leaders say the taxes are increasing because the state is taking on a smaller share of public education funding. Hey Texplainer, what's really happening?

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State lawmakers are not solely to blame for the increasing burden on local property taxpayers, but they are certainly as responsible as anyone else.

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You wouldn’t be out of line wondering why Texas school finance didn’t get fixed in 2017. Or 2015. Or 2013. But it’s because this is a hard policy problem and a harder political one. The prompt now is that property taxes have gotten so far out of hand that lawmakers have no choice but to act.

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The Texas Commission on Public School Finance will meet for the first time this week as it develops legislative recommendations for overhauling the state's beleaguered system for funding public education.

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