Failure to Fund is BANKRUPTCY

This is my open letter to my State Rep., Tan Parker, and my State Senator, Chris Harris, regarding public school funding.


Rep. Parker, schools in Texas are already struggling due to a flawed funding formula that failed to take growth and inflation into account. Expensive state and federal mandates have made it more expensive than ever to educate our children. Our local district, Lewisville ISD is already running lean, and there is little left to cut that will not affect the classroom. Under HB 1, Lewisville ISD stands to lose from $44 to $64 million in state funding it is entitled to under current funding formulas the state committed to for so-called "property tax relief".

Anywhere else in society, when someone promises to pay, then reneges, that is considered bankruptcy. The state of Texas is bankrupt due to a lack of revenue, engineered purposely, I believe to derail public education.

Not only is this bankruptcy in the fiscal sense, it's a kind of moral and spiritual bankruptcy to balance our budget on the backs of our children, and our teachers.

I think there are several things that need to be done, and I urge you to find the moral conviction and courage to do them, even though they run counter to the dogma-du-jour of your party:

1. Put STARR on hold until schools are FULLY funded, including textbooks. It is an unfunded mandate that will be impossible to achieve without a lot of curriculum staff in each district working full-time on it. When districts begin to fail these new tougher standards, it will be used as further fuel on the fire by those who believe public education is wrong.

2. Release the rest of the rainy-day fund - every last nickel of it. When you are bankrupt, you don't get to keep a savings account. That money rightfully belongs to the schools.

3. Allow districts to raise their local tax rates - without election - up to a rate that would bring them the same amount of revenue in total as the previous year.

4. Address the long-term funding shortfall by appropriately raising taxes. You don't get something for nothing, and there is a price to live and work in a state where people are educated. If we think paying a few dollars extra each year is going to kill us, then we ought to see what's coming when our state slips even further behind in educating our kids. The most expensive education is cheaper than the cheapest prison. Raise my taxes. I'm asking you to raise my taxes.

"In its current form, House Bill 1 appropriates 56% of all available revenue (total budget) to funding education programs in Texas. This percentage is in line with prior state budgeets and I am proud that even during these challenging economic times that the Texas legislature continues to allocate the majority of our resources to educating our children."