I was talking to an attorney for the plaintiffs in the upcoming Supreme Court case, when he said that conservatives may intervene in the school finance lawsuit. Their contention, the attorney said, is that an efficient system could be achieved with school choice and vouchers. A school finance lobbyist told me about a law review article on the subject a few years ago.

In any event, I doubt that the current lawsuit will go down that road. The Legislature’s decision, backed by Governor Perry, to cut $4 billion from the public education budget virtually guarantees that the state will lose the lawsuit. The state’s legal problem is that it continues to raise standards, which is a good thing, without providing the money and the instructional materials necessary to achieve success. This is a pretty good definition of a school system that does not meet the constitutional requirement of “efficient.”

Tagged: school finance

This is an exact quote from the working paper of a senior adviser to Straus:

Option 1

Year 1–50% reduction from target revenue & 50% reduction from regular program

Year 2–50% reduction from target revenue & 50% reduction from regular program

Provisions sunset 8/31/2-13

Interim Committee to study school finance

Option 2:

Year 1 — proportionate reduction under current funding structure (Eissler)

Year 2–implementation of 1st year of SB 22 (Shapiro 25%/75%)

Estimate $4 billion owing FYs 2014 and 2015

Provisions sunset 8/31/2013

Interim Committee to study public school finance

There is an “understanding” that House Appropriations and Senate Finance can set the rates.

Everything that I have written here comes from two documents that I have seen, one from Sylvester Turner, the other from the senior Straus adviser.

* * * *

These were the two options that were on the table. The conferees chose to go with Option 2.

Eissler (pro-ration) is a 6% cut for all districts, including low target-revenue districts. In other words, the poorest districts get hurt the most.

SB 22, which I believe was the best of all options, is much better for poor districts.

The House insisted on a Sunset provision in two years.

Tagged: Florence Shapiro, Rob eissler, school finance