EDLD+5343+School+Finance+-+Funding+Formulas

Three basic issues impacting the state formula are:
 * 1) Adjusted Refined Average Daily Attendance
 * 2) Program weights (SpEd, C/T, G/T, etc.)
 * 3) Local ad valorem M & O tax rate

These were selected because they are the most basic components of the state funding formulas. There are other factors added in to account for district size, cost of education, etc., but these have the most direct effect on the amount of funding the state provides. Currently, the state has gone to a target revenue system that locked districts into a dollar amount per WADA based on 2005-2006 property values.

The state funding formulas are overly complex and seem to have a negative effect on funding the basic education of students in Texas. Instead of providing a basic funding floor for all Texas students to receive a free, efficient, adequate, and equitable public education, the formulas increasingly require the local districts to shoulder more of the burden of funding their schools because the formulas are not updated. Also, districts that can fund basic programs and enrichment programs on their own with a low tax rate are helped just as much as (or more than) districts who can barely fund basic programs with a high tax rate. The funding formulas create an inequitable system. Schools of similar size, in the same location, with the same tax rate receive different target revenues for no logical reason. The formulas must be changed and simplified to provide an adequate and equitable funding solution.