The Texas House Has Offered a Serious Plan to Fund Our Schools. Will the Senate Answer?

For more legislative sessions than we can remember, state lawmakers have promised to reform public school financing, only to disappoint school districts and, of course, taxpayers and their children.But now, at last, we can say we are cautiously optimistic that a real plan to overhaul the school finance system, emerging from the Texas House, is a major step in the right direction. It focuses on the right things, and we would urge the Senate to produce an equally serious proposal when it unveils its full plan later this week.The House measure would increase the state's share of dollars for public education, pay for full-day prekindergarten and give school districts money to reduce school property taxes. The House measure would add $9 billion of cash from the state into the education system -- $2 billion more than what is needed to keep pace with student enrollment and $3 billion more than the Senate has proposed.  Continue reading...