State Funding System

1)      Tier 1:  According to the School Finance 101 Manual on the TEA website, Tier 1 is made up of several allotments: “ basic education, special education, career and technical education, bilingual/English as a Second Language education, compensatory education, gifted and talented education, Public Education Grants, transportation, and new instructional facilities. Tier I also includes an allotment for specialized programs at the high school level, the high school allotment. “ The Tier 1 amount is calculated based on the basic allotment, the district’s compressed tax rate and the average daily attendance.  In a nutshell, the district starts with a basic amount, then that amount is adjusted based on the average daily attendance of students in all of the programs listed above.  The more students in the “weighted” categories, such as special education and CT, the more money the district receives.

2)      Tier 2: This tier provides a guaranteed level of funding.  The property wealth of districts will vary and the state guarantees to supplement the income to a guaranteed level.  In other words, if a small district is not earning enough money from their tax effort, the state will subsidize their income up to a certain amount.  This is in place to assist the districts with lower property wealth.  There are three levels in this Tier.

3)      Revenue at the compressed tax rate: This guarantees districts a set amount of funds per students based on weighted average daily attendance.  This is a little more confusing and I am not sure I completely understand how it is calculated.

Reflection:
There is no question that there is a problem with our current funding system.  The number of court cases is evidence that the equity is not there.  I believe that the biggest problem is the fact that the state cannot decide on an acceptable standard for accountability, which results in a roller coaster system full of unfunded mandates and expenditures.   The pressure and accountability goes up, and the amount of money necessary to meet those standards goes up, but the funding offered to districts goes down.  How in the world does that make sense to anyone?  Although it is a frustrating predicament for all educators, I admire the fact that our superintendents and other leaders in education continue to fight to meet the standards.  Although we must continue to make cuts in personnel and programs, we will refuse to sacrifice our hearts for kids.  It feels like we are fighting a losing battle, but we will press on for the benefit of the students in our districts.  Fight the good fight!