Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

A special House committee recommended a series of school funding changes Wednesday to give districts a better return on their property taxes and also prevent the state's two largest school districts – Dallas and Houston – from becoming "Robin Hood" districts this year.

In a new report, the House Select Committee on Higher and Public Education also called for a new state initiative in middle schools and a new approach to instructional materials that would shift much of the funding now spent on textbooks to technology.

On higher education, the panel said the Legislature should consider increasing the number of flagship universities in Texas by at least three and as many as five over the next decade "to substantially bolster the state's economic and educational health." The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University are now the only public flagship schools in the state.

"Unfortunately, Texas is now less competitive because of its limited number of Tier One research universities," the panel said, calling for an initial investment of $300 million from the state's "rainy day" fund to begin recruiting "outstanding research faculty."

Also recommended were sizable increases in student financial aid, with members noting that only half of eligible students receive assistance from the Texas Grant Program, the largest in the state.

Most of the recommendations dealt with public education, including proposals to fix a variety of problems in the school finance system such as the rapid increase in the number of school districts required to share their property tax revenues under the system's "Robin Hood" requirements.

"It certainly doesn't make sense to have our two largest districts – Dallas and Houston – deemed to be property wealthy when they're not wealthy at all," committee chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas, said. Projections indicate that both will have to share their wealth for the first time this year.

The committee recommended that the funding law be revamped to prevent that in part by increasing the amount of revenue that all school districts are guaranteed in their local property tax.

Another change would amend a provision in the 2006 school finance law that has frozen school districts at the "target revenue" levels they were operating at that year. The target revenue provision has resulted in huge disparities, allowing some districts to spend several hundred dollars more per student than other districts.
Poll on Texas education

The Texas State Teachers Association contracted with two leading pollsters – one used by Democrats and the other by Republicans – to survey Texans on public education. Some findings:

60% said Texas is spending too little on education despite the declining national and state economy. Only 10 percent said the state is spending too much.

71% said the Legislature has more work to do on the state's often-troubled school funding system. That view was shared by most Democrats, Republicans and independents.

64% said there is too much emphasis on student testing. That percentage has grown significantly in the last three years.

18% said the TAKS test should be used as the sole criterion for whether a student should pass a course or be promoted. Students in grades 3, 5 and 8 must pass the TAKS to be promoted to the next grade.

57% favor a raise for all teachers if additional state money is provided, while 35 percent said raises should be targeted to teachers whose students show improved test scores.

The poll of 815 Texas voters by the Tarrance Group and Harstad Strategic Research was conducted Jan. 26-29 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.