TEXAS SCHOOL FINANCE FACT SHEET
- When the Legislature approved our state budget for the 2012/2013 biennium (9/1/11 – 8/31/13) this past June, it made history by cutting $4 Billion in funding for public schools and $1.4 Billion in grants (for pre-k, student aid and support, etc). For the first time ever, the new state budget also included no money for the 80,000 additional students who arrive in Texas schools each year. The cuts amounted to $1,000 per student, or 9% of total public education spending. To implement these cuts, the Legislature repealed a 60-year Legislative Compact adopted in 1949 that guaranteed funding levels for all students in Texas public schools. These spending cuts have caused thousands of teacher layoffs across Texas and increased class sizes.
- The budget cuts and threats to public education are a direct result of a “tax swap” in 2006 that created a permanent hole in the Texas budget. As Rep. Mike Villarreal’s Power Point presentation and State Comptroller Carole Keeton’s letter from May 15, 2006, clearly demonstrate, the permanent hole, known as a structural deficit, is now $10B and growing. If this permanent hole isn’t eliminated, Texas faces ballooning deficits and a bleak economic and educational future.
- Before the current budget cuts were approved by the Legislature, Texas already ranked 50th nationally in per capita spending overall. We are now at or near the bottom nationally in per capita spending on public education as well. Texas has the highest growth rate of child poverty among the states, and slightly over half of Texas public schoolchildren live in poverty.
Currently Texas ranks 11th nationally in property taxes, and the budget cuts mean that property taxes will continue to rise. Inadequate state funding has given us the worst of both worlds: a declining quality of education due to budget cuts and ever-increasing property taxes, which tax people’s most important assets, their homes, regardless of their ability to pay.
Texas currently ranks 42nd nationally in taxes and fees collected as a percentage of personal income. Our tax system cannot generate sufficient revenues to meet the bedrock needs of our state.
- The Texas Tax Code contains 227 tax exclusions, reductions and discounts totaling $66B. By closing tax loopholes and fixing the margins tax, Texas can fund quality public education for all. Without such action, property taxes will continue to rise, the dropout problem will worsen, and the quality of public education will suffer.
- The Take Back Texas Alliance is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created recently by concerned citizens who realized that those in control are causing enormous harm to our state. Our mission is to tell the voters of Texas the truth about the Texas budget and generate public support for a new legislature in 2013 that will analyze the facts and do what is right for Texas. We need legislators whose allegiance is to the people of our state and whose focus is to make public education their top priority.
- The opportunity to elect a new legislature may not reappear for a long time. All 31 Texas Senators are up for re-election. This event only happens after redistricting, or every 10 years. In addition, many veteran legislators who voted for the budget cuts are retiring, and many incumbents are vulnerable due to redistricting. Candidates must file for public office in Texas between November 15 and December 15, 2011.
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