Funding the future

Victor Ilog

English 1301

05/05/04

Lawrence Welsh

10 a.m. MWF

Essay #4 Final Draft

Funding the Future

Since the demise of Robin Hood, the Texas public school funding program where monies are funneled from tax rich districts to those that are tax poor, everyone from politicians and business leaders to educators and parents have questioned how we will overcome next year's 1.65 billion dollar budget shortfall. At the heart of the debate is the issue of equity standards set forth by the Texas Supreme Court in its 1995 Edgewood IV ruling. In that decision, the Court ruled that the provisions laid out in Senate Bill 7, passed in 1993, are constitutional and must be upheld by the Texas legislature. The first goal of SB7 represents a critical commitment which states, "All students shall have access to an education of high quality that will prepare them to participate fully now and in the future in the social, economic and educational opportunities available in Texas."

English: Texas Lottery Commission headquarters Esp...

Texas Lottery

English: Building of the Supreme Court of Texas

The very future of Texas depends on the quality of education our young people receive. Finding an equitable and sustainable public school funding program is the critical component in guaranteeing quality education for all Texas children. As we will discover, the solution lies within two, essentially untapped, massive revenue-generating aquifers.

With over four million students, the Texas public school system is the second largest in the country, currently educating nearly ten percent of all students in the U.S.1 The demographics within the state indicate that those numbers will rise significantly in the coming years. In addition, Texas is responsible for educating an unusually large

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proportion of low-income students and children that do not speak English.1 Not surprisingly, these students costs much more to educate. These facts, combined with the absence of any state school-funding program...