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You need to know a little more about Texas schools first. 1. They're independent, which means that they have their own taxing authority. Citizens in the ISD (

by chiph 9y ago

You need to know a little more about Texas schools first. 1. They're independent, which means that they have their own taxing authority. Citizens in the ISD (Independent School District) get a bill yearly to pay the tax. So if you buy land here, you need to know what school, emergency services, water, etc. district you'll be in to get an idea of what your taxes will be (commonly in the 2-3% of your property value every year). 2. Because many ISDs are in low-population areas, or areas with low-value land (since the taxes are based on property values), ISDs in wealthy areas have what is called recapture. Which means that funds are taken from them and redistributed to the rest of the state. So people owning property in Austin, Houston, Dallas, etc. are funding schools in the rest of the state. 3. The tea party influence (deep conservatives) in the legislature is real. They do support better schools - only they support some subjects more than others. And some not at all.. But they only meet every 2 years so their influence is limited on the ISDs.

stevenwoo 9y ago
Everything you said is true except the last part has an omission. The state helps fund local school districts, and has been doing several things to reduce that amount every session ever since White was governor if my memory serves. For just one example there was an expose in the Houston Chronicle how the Texas Education Agency imposed a set percent limit on special education students so no matter what, if a school reported a percentage above that, the school was penalized heavily so school adminstrators played the game, and never found more special ed students than the TEA limit. The budgetary reason for this is special ed students cost a lot more per student. There was a public radio expose but the story was in print first. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/ http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/

by chiph 9y ago

stevenwoo 9y ago

Everything you said is true except the last part has an omission. The state helps fund local school districts, and has been doing several things to reduce that amount every session ever since White was governor if my memory serves. For just one example there was an expose in the Houston Chronicle how the Texas Education Agency imposed a set percent limit on special education students so no matter what, if a school reported a percentage above that, the school was penalized heavily so school adminstrators played the game, and never found more special ed students than the TEA limit. The budgetary reason for this is special ed students cost a lot more per student. There was a public radio expose but the story was in print first. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/ http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/