DALLAS - As the Texas House and Senate prepare for a showdown over school funding, one of the state's largest school districts is bracing for a $12 million deficit based on current revenue estimates.
The El Paso Independent School District's finance department told the school board on April 21 that under one funding scenario, the district would receive about $462 million in revenue, but face about $474 million in expenses.
Under two other scenarios, the deficit could run as high as $25 million, officials said.
The district on the western tip of Texas faces a loss of 900 students and $3.9 million in state funding, according to projections. Legislation would also reduce Texas Retirement System healthcare funding of $3.6 million. Debt service is expected to rise by about $9.8 million.
On the northeastern corner of the state, trustees for the Texarkana Independent School District were told that they would face a deficit of $886,124 if state funding remains the same. If House Bill 1759 by Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock wins passage, the district would enjoy a $3.5 million surplus; funding for schools would increase by $3 billion with a new formula in his bill.
In suburban Austin, the Eanes ISD is facing a deficit of nearly $6 million under the current funding formula. Superintendents across the state are warning employees of possible cutbacks if more money is not available.
The legislature is considering funding formulas that would affect property wealthy and property poor districts, as well as a proposed pre-kindergarten program supported by Gov. Greg Abbott. In addition to those measures, the state Senate has already passed a bill that allows businesses in the state to divert up to half of their state tax payments to private schools.
The bill, described by critics as a school voucher bill, faces a stiffer challenge in the House where challengers are prepared for a tough fight.
"Texas simply can't afford to pay for two separate school systems, one public and one nominally private but subsidized by the state," Charles Luke from the advocacy group Coalition for Public Schools said in a prepared statement. "The first accountable to taxpayers and the second not accountable."
Thirteen states have instituted some form of voucher plans, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.
Opponents also note public schools are still recovering from $5.4 billion in cuts to classrooms approved by the Legislature in 2011, which led more than 600 school districts statewide to sue and a state district judge in Austin to declare state funding inadequate and unfairly distributed between rich and poor areas of Texas.
At a meeting of the Texas House Committee on Public Education that he chairs, Aycock said his bill would reform and modernize the state's system of paying for public education.
About 94% of Texas students are enrolled in districts that would see a per-pupil funding increase, Aycock said. The bill requires that no school district see a decrease in per-pupil funding over the next two years.
HB 1759 reduces the number of districts and the amount of money subject to recapture, the process by which some districts are required to send some of their local tax revenue to the state to equalize funding for less wealthy districts.
"Any change in these formulas will have different implications for different districts," Aycock said. "But on the whole, this plan increases equity, it keeps more local dollars in local communities and it provides schools more resources to educate kids."?
? The House has already voted overwhelmingly for a two-year state budget that increases education funding by $2.2 billion on top of what is needed to pay for growth in student enrollment. The House also approved an amendment that would allow an additional $800 million to flow to public education if Aycock's legislation is approved.
