School finance

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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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In the wake of a federal report finding Texas was failing its kids with disabilities, educators say the state is to blame and that Texas legislators first suggested cutting back special education services to keep costs low.

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The end of the year is when property owners have to pay their taxes — an increasingly large bill in Texas that’s a key part of the state’s rickety school finance system. Here’s a sampling of columns tracking that debate in 2017.

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Take a look back at our 2017 public education coverage and read about how the Texas Legislature failed to overhaul the school finance system, how several Texas students and teachers are still recovering from a devastating hurricane, and more.

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As state cuts to public education become more common, school communities must frequently debate where and how to trim their limited budgets without harming students or teachers.

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The infestation of Norwegian rats in a state building where health regulators work is not only a big, embarrassing mess — it's a metaphor for a persistent problem in Texas government.

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At a House Public Education Committee hearing Thursday, superintendents rattled off long lists of unexpected costs they incurred after Hurricane Harvey swept through the Texas coast.

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Doug Killian, the current superintendent of Pflugerville ISD, was recently named to the Texas Legislature's interim commission to study school finance. Read what he had to say about the challenges facing the commission.

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The Texas Education Agency is offering state funding to as many as 157 school districts and charter schools that saw lower attendance or closed facilities due to the storm, which could ultimately cost the state an estimated $400 million.

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For the first time in Texas, charter schools will receive funding from the state to pay for leasing and maintaining buildings and facilities. That has charter advocates excited — and their critics furious.

 

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Last year, the state forced Texas City ISD to annex, or absorb, its neighboring district. After months of work, efforts to improve conditions for students from annexed La Marque ISD hit a significant speed bump: Hurricane Harvey.

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At Coleman High School, the failure of legislation to raise teacher pay and fix the school finance system at the Capitol means another year of finding creative ways to attract new teachers and do more for the students.

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