Senator Rodríguez’s statement on Judge Dietz’s ruling regarding Texas school finance

State Senator José Rodríguez issued the following statement regarding today’s ruling by District Judge John Dietz, in which he held that Texas’ school finance system was inequitable and inefficient, inadequate, and created a de facto state property tax:

Our state has not lived up to its constitutional obligation to offer equitable and adequate educational opportunities to all Texans. Today’s court ruling is yet another opportunity to do better, especially with the 84th Legislature right around the corner. The state’s attorneys should end their battle against the Texas constitution — and our students, parents, and teachers — and allow us to move forward on a legislative solution to this issue, which is of such vital importance for the future of Texas.

The ruling can be viewed via this link: http://www.co.travis.tx.us/courts/civil/district/pdfs/school-finance-final-judgment.pdf

As background, Senator Rodríguez recently published the following op-ed in the El Paso Times and other news media on the issue of school finance:

Sen. José Rodríguez: Texas must prioritize school finance solution

By state Sen. José Rodríguez / Guest columnist

Aug. 3, 2014

School is right around the corner, and so is a ruling on the state’s system of school finance.

In February 2013, District Judge John Dietz issued a preliminary bench ruling that Texas’ school funding system is unconstitutionally inadequate for bilingual and economically disadvantaged students, inadequate for school districts more generally, inequitable for low property wealth districts, and that many school districts lack meaningful discretion in setting tax rates.

The decision wasn’t a surprise, not even for the state’s leadership, which continues to fight this issue in court instead of solving it in the Legislature. We made some advances in the 83rd Legislature in 2013 — including restoring about $3.5 billion of the $5.4 billion cut in 2011 — but not enough to resolve the generations-long issue. Judge Dietz, who took additional evidence following the 2013 legislative session, is expected to issue a final written ruling late this summer or early fall.

This, in my opinion, is and always has been one of the key issues for Texas.

Education is the single most important factor in building a prosperous, sustainable economy. It provides opportunity for everyone to be productive members of society. It is how I was able to leave the fields where I grew up as a migrant farm worker to become a lawyer and public servant.

Latina/o and African-American students in Texas now constitute a majority in our schools. And many of them attend schools that receive less per-student funding on average than schools attended primarily by Anglo students. This correlates to less opportunity, whether it’s the physical facilities and technology or larger class sizes, reduced pre-K and other educational programs, reduced extracurricular activities, and fewer teachers.

The Senate Hispanic Caucus, which I chair, and the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus have established a number of task forces to address issues of importance to the state’s future. At the top of that list is education.

In a report issued in early July, the education task force ranked public school finance as the top issue impacting Latina/o students.

Schools in Texas rely heavily on local property taxes, which vary, and the task force found that “the poorest 10 percent of districts collect an average of 10 cents more per $100 of property valuation in taxes than the wealthiest 10 percent. Even with recapture and with a 10-cent tax cut, the districts in the wealthiest decile enjoy a $951 per-student advantage — a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars per school.”

Student outcomes should not depend on which side of town you live in. Or, in legal terms, every school district should be able to raise similar revenue at a similar tax effort.

Again, even if you do not believe in full educational opportunity because it’s the right thing to do, it’s in our state’s interest to make sure all students have an adequate education, which provides a better chance at productive citizenship for the individual and the trained workforce employers need to maintain economic prosperity.

This is especially true of students with limited English proficiency. Research shows that emergent bilingual and compensatory education programs cost on average 40 percent more than regular program costs.

But Texas adds only 0.1 for bilingual/English as a second language programs and 0.2 for compensatory education programs, for the state’s more than 869,000 English-language learner students (17 percent) and 3 million economically disadvantaged students (60 percent).

Meanwhile, the situation is exacerbated by the state’s expensive reliance on standardized testing as the measure of student achievement. Additionally, the state’s cost of education index, which calculates funding adjustments based on variations in cost of living, district size, and regional teacher salaries, has not been changed since 1990.

Students are back in school soon. Judge Dietz will issue his ruling soon. The Legislature will convene soon enough.

When will we finally put all our children first, and commit to fully funding education, as Texas’ founders wisely mandated?

***

José Rodríguez represents Texas Senate District 29, which includes the counties of El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, and Presidio. He represents both urban and rural constituencies, and more than 350 miles of the Texas-Mexico border. Senator Rodríguez currently serves as the Chairman of the Senate Hispanic Caucus, Vice Chairman of the Senate Jurisprudence Committee, and a member of the Senate Committees on Criminal Justice, Veteran Affairs and Military Installations, and Government Organization.

-30-

« »