According to the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) September 24th press release:
For the first time in its 60-year history, the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) has developed a plan for distributing state funds to Texas public schools. The TASB Board of Directors, under the leadership of outgoing President Sarah Winkler, secretary of the Alief Independent School District Board of Trustees, unanimously adopted the new school finance plan during its meeting Thursday night.
“Our plan proposes a school funding system that builds upon the legislature’s efforts during the 81st Legislative Session to implement a formula-driven school finance system for all Texas public school districts,” said Winkler.
A key feature of the TASB plan is that it is scalable, which is critical given Texas’ current state budget shortfall. The state can implement the plan with modest resource levels and improve it over time as the state’s economic environment improves.
TASB’s new school finance model is a single-tier, single-guaranteed yield system that would replace the current target revenue and two-tiered, multiple-yield systems currently in effect. In the coming biennium, it would guarantee every school district a minimum increase in revenue per Weighted Average Daily Attendance (WADA) of $30, while limiting any one district’s gain to $200 per WADA.
While guaranteeing at least a small increase for every district, the TASB plan seeks to improve school funding equity by allocating greater gains to districts with low property wealth, low target revenue and/or high percentages of economically disadvantaged students.
TASB is a nonprofit association established in 1949 to serve local public school districts. School board members are the largest group of publicly elected officials in the state. The districts they represent serve approximately 4.8 million students.
More details can be found at: http://www.tasb.org/legislative/resources/finance.aspx
