School finance

The Texas public school finance system, responsible for underwriting the education of the nation’s second-largest student population, is notoriously byzantine. Here’s our layman’s guide to figuring it out.

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Republican senators say the state's budget shortfall will mean educations cuts, but they said schools should focus first on eliminating non-classroom expenses and keeping as many teachers as possible.

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The state’s 1,030 school districts have — in total — $10.2 billion in reserves and another $2.1 billion in unspent federal stimulus money. Can they use that money to avoid draconian cutbacks? It's not that simple.

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Want to get the attention of 11,000 Texans? Propose a $10 billion spending cut to public education.

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School districts won't know exactly what nearly $10 billion in state cuts means to them until lawmakers pass a new school finance bill. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune takes a look at the first bill of the session that gives districts an idea of what to expect.

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School districts won't know exactly what nearly $10 billion in state cuts means to them until lawmakers pass a new school finance bill. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune takes a look at the first bill of the session that gives districts an idea of what to expect.

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For lawmakers scrutinizing every possible saving, “administrative costs” presents an easy mark. But there may be less to cut than they imagine.

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Some state lawmakers are hoping a new state constitutional amendment will bring an end to the so-called Robin Hood school finance system, as Texas Public Radio's David Martin Davies reports.

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Texas school districts are bracing for budget cuts and layoffs in the coming months. And as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, education advocates are particularly concerned about the state's roll out of STAAR, a new testing system, in 2012.

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Texas school districts are bracing for budget cuts and layoffs in the coming months. But as Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, the cuts have some worried about 2012, when the state will roll out STAAR, a new testing system.

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At last Wednesday's TribLive conversation, first-term House members Stefani Carter, R-Dallas, Cindy Burkett, R-Mesquite, and Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, explained why they think deep cuts to public education are possible.

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Cutting $10 billion public education funding could push more than two-dozen school districts from the group that receives state financing into the group that writes checks to the state to even things out between richer and poorer districts.

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They’re surely facing the worst budget cycle any of them have experienced. Yet in hours of testimony before lawmakers, the commissioners of Texas’ social services and education agencies appear largely unruffled.

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Six months after Congress established the $10 billion Education Jobs Fund to help states retain and hire teachers, Texas is one of only two states that has not received its money. Whether the state will gets it depends on a game of political chicken between Gov. Rick Perry and a certain Austin Democrat.

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The executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association talks with The Texas Tribune about how cuts in education funding will hit charter schools hardest, and how they can partner with traditional public school districts in "win-win"arrangements — like sharing facilities.

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Cries of "Texas fight" and "It's 8:45, and we're still underfunded" rang across a crowd of nearly 100 students, who marched to the Capitol this morning to rally for adequate funding for the University of Texas.

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With just 56 students, Marathon ISD is one of the state's smallest. But its fate is critical to the West Texas town's survival. And if what is happening here works, it could serve as a model for other towns looking to shield their way of life from the death knell of school closures.

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Leaders from school districts across Texas had tough words for lawmakers as they gathered this morning to denounce the "devastating" cuts to state public education funding.

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With some top state leaders warning that Texas’ dire fiscal situation will lead to the loss of several thousand state jobs, House budget writers will release their first draft budget today. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, big job cuts may be just the beginning.

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With some top state leaders warning that Texas' dire fiscal situation will lead to the loss of several thousand state jobs, House budget writers will release their first draft budget today. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, big job cuts may be just the beginning.

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