Events in School Finance History

It is very difficult to narrow the events of history down to three major events.  I have no doubt that we will all have differing opinions as to the “most important” events.  I look forward to reading the opinions of my cohort group and learning from the collaboration.

1)      I believe that you cannot identify the top three events in the History of Texas School finance without listing the acts of Maribiau B. Lamar.  He is known as the Father of Education and his land grants were one of the first plans to provide funding for education.  It is evident throughout Texas history that education was an important part of society (although it was not readily available to all ages, genders and economic levels.)  Mr. Lamar was the first to develop a way to help FUND education.  Many valued educations, but few had any ideas of how to offer education to all.   Evidence of his impact is seen in the fact that his grants founded two of Texas’ leading universities: A & M and UT.  I believe Maribiau B. Lamar lit the educational fire in Texas and although it has become an extremely complex fire, it still burns brightly today.

2)      The second event was the Gilmer-Aiken Committee/Gilmer Aiken Laws in 1947. Their purpose was to make public schools more efficient and better funded and they had an impact on multiple areas of school finance.  Their actions resulted in reduced number of school districts, increases in Teacher salaries increases, a formalize school, the SBOE was founded and  an organized approach to the state  supplementing local taxes to adequately fund education was established.  The actions of this committee were ground breaking and had an immediate effect on public education.

3)      The third historical event in school finance history I believe had a tremendous impact was the events from 1984-1995 which included the school finance court case of Edgewood vs Kirby and led to the legislative development of a new funding program that became known as the Robin Hood Plan.  This plan recaptured funds from wealthy school districts and provided them to the poor.  Although it did seem to balance the equity of public school funding, it was not a popular plan with the wealthy school districts.  The wealthy school districts ultimately filed a lawsuit which resulted in the current funding system.  The reason I include the Edgewood vs Kirby court case is that I believe it opened the door for the school finance litigation.  Suddenly districts realized that the courts were willing to be involved in this issue and court cases could have a huge impact on legislation.  This remains true today with the current litigation.

Reflection:
I found it quite interesting to compare the thoughts of my cohort group in this area.  Although few stated the exact same three top events, we all had similar thoughts as to the general theme.  This activity was very beneficial to me because I had never really considered the history of school finance and the fact that education has faced the same challenges throughout history.  Lawmakers and legislators have continued to make education a priority.  The problem is finding a system that benefits every type of school.  Trying to find a “cookie cutter” formula for education is difficult and the challenge remains to this day.   In my opinion, lawmakers today have lost sight of the true meaning of education for all.  They seem to be more interested in accountability and politics than student needs.  I have no doubt that many of the challenges we face in school finance today are due to leaders and educators who failed to put children first.  As in every other area of education, it only takes a few “bad apples” to ruin the system for everyone.  One sure thing that educators and lawmakers today can learn from the history of school finance is that it began with leaders who had a heart for children and education.