School funding in Texas State


The education system in Texas attracts attention in many ways. This is because Texas has the highest number of school going children in the United States. Moreover, it has the highest growth rate in the number of children joining public education system per year. This means that the overall cost of education is increasing at a very high rate compared to other states due to the large number of students which translates into high number of children who need special attention and needs. Despite the high number of school going children in Texas, the state spending on education per child is less than the average in the whole country. This is despite the increase in state budgetary allocation in 1996. In 1996, the Texas state was ranked 31 out of the total fifty states in the education spending.

    Over the years, the funding of education has attracted a lot of political and legislative debates. The financing of Texas schools is done by the local, state or the federal funds. Almost half of all the funds are obtained from the local sources while only about ten percent is allocated from the federal government. The rest is obtained from the state resources. Different districts have varying financial and economic resources and therefore their revenues also vary. This means that the districts which are more endowed with economic resources fund their education systems with the local funds while the poor district receives more allocation from the state.

    There is some inequality in the allocation of education funds in the Texas state. All the students do not receive equal funding despite the attempts to make the education funding equitable following a court order. Once different districts are compared there is a very big variation in the amount spent per student. In some district, the spending per student is observed to be less than what is spent in another district. For example, in the 1996/1997 fiscal year, it was observed that some districts were spending over ten thousand dollars per child while others were spending less than four thousand. These variations had a direct influence on the student performance which will in turn affect his or her achievement in life and will have a long term effect of making the uneven distribution of resources even worse.

    However, in an attempt to reduce these disparities in funding, two types of equity have been proposed. The vertical equity aims at taking care of the disadvantaged by allocating more funds to cater for the special programs required. This takes into consideration the disabled children who are not likely to perform in academics as their normal counterparts and may require special facilities. The other type of equity is the fiscal neutrality which rules out relating the revenue generated in the district with the spending per student. It was estimated that in 1997, the school property taxes had gone up with 174% in one decade since the districts were trying to tax the poor members of their districts.

    In conclusion, evaluation of the education spending in taxes and other states to determine the level of inequality in allocations is essential. The state should ensure that all students have equal opportunities by providing equal resources. This can be done by increasing the state funds to reduce the local property tax burden especially in the poor districts. More over Texas State should allocate more funds into their education systems.

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