Right now, it is critical that all citizens get involved demanding that legislators make Education in Texas a Priority. Balancing our state budget should not put the future of this state in jeopardy. Education cannot be seen as an expense, but as an investment. If you want to get involved, please call, email or send a letter to your legislators. To find the list of legislators that represent your residential area, please visit this site. You can also get a copy of a template to write a letter or an email to your legislators here. Even if you don't have kids in public schools, you need to get involved. After all, the quality of education affects the value of our homes and businesses.
Please spread the word to all your relatives and friends. Feel free to copy this blog link in your Facebook and Twitter pages to ask others to get involved. Many districts have joined forces to make Education a Priority in our state. For more information, please visit www.schoolpriority.com.
It appears Texas spends $7,818 per student according to the above referenced Census data. I scanned through the School Board meeting minutes to find how much GCISD spends per student but found nothing. Please publish this information for consideration before asking us to contact our state representatives. I noticed in the "NY Times" article and comments Utah spends relatively little per student but have higher than average graduation rates. I'm not so sure more money correlates to better education. Just saying... Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback! GCISD currently spends $6917 per student. We currently have 13,626 students in the district. That funding does not include the $26 million dollars we are forced to send back to the state based on "Robin Hood". We are below average at the state level in the funds assigned to educate our kids, even though we send that many millions of dollars back to the state, money that is used to fund other school districts. If we could keep those funds, that amounts to over $1900 per student.
ReplyDeleteOur legislators already remove a large chunk of funds from our local property taxes ($26 million, as mentioned above), and in the current legislative session, they will be asking us to reduce our expenses by 20%. That means they will take an additional $18 million dollars from our property taxes back to Austin. That is why we should all contact our legislators and demand that education is funded appropriately.
Finally, on your comment about Utah, there is a significant difference in the demographics of Texas students vs. that state. The main difference is that the rate of children coming from poor families is around 11% (according to the Community Action Partnership of Utah, www.caputah.org), while the rate of poverty among Texas students is over 55%. Kids below poverty lines face many challenges, and it is more expensive to educate them. Texas also has a larger portion of kids that do not speak English as their first language, and that also adds to the overall cost of education.
Sums it right up Jorge!
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the greater range of educational needs we now are more aware of, vs when I was in my little bitty Class A out in East Texas: dyslexia, reading intervention, & special ed support. Kids are in better hands than they were 20 years ago; not a slam, we've just come that far.
And that 20% budget cut will hit personnel at a higher percentage--we will still have to pay the same utility(HVAC, water) bills, same transportation(fuel & bus maintenance) costs, and same amount of trash collection/bathroom/floor cleaning for 17 campuses & 13,600 kids. So the only place left to cut is the classroom.
Great comments! According to "Financial Allocation Study for Texas" tool (www.fastexas.org/), GCISD 2009-2010 had 13,619 student, spent $7,283/student and 90% passed TAKS. The Spending Index is "Low" and Accountability Rating is "Recognized". This indicates to me GCISD is very fiscally efficient. Does GCISD have 55%+ students living below poverty? If not how many are? The main question is how much will a 20% reduction detract from the students' performance? Will we have to increase taxes by 20% while giving $26M to the State?
ReplyDeleteHowever, it seems to me we should contact our legislators to reduce or rescind "Robin Hood"! I have friends in Hurst who gloat about how H.E.B. only have to cut $5M. I believe they are a Robin Hood recipient district!
For 2011, school districts have to operate on a system that is figuring school funding based on what was established back in 2006. IT HAS NOT CHANGED!
20% cut is significant when you consider that over 80% of the district expenses are employee salaries. There is not a lot to cut that won't directly affect the classroom. The 20% additional cut translate into a larger recapture of our local property taxes to be sent back to Austin. Therefore, the $26M increases to over $40M.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, the percentage of economically disadvantage students in GCISD was 16% based on the 2010 TEA Accountability Report.