Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN – Texas has lost some ground in education spending as compared with other states, according to a study released Tuesday by the nation's largest teacher union.

Spending per pupil in Texas ranked 34th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the 2003-04 school year, a drop of two spots, the National Education Association study showed.

The comparisons came as the Legislature prepares to meet next month in a regular session that is expected to be dominated by debate over the state's school finance system.

In declaring the system unconstitutional this year, state District Judge John Dietz of Austin called on lawmakers to put more money into education. The judge said the $30 billion-a-year system is collapsing because of inadequate state aid and the inability of school districts to meet increasing state and federal requirements.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other legislative leaders are already on record as favoring an increase in funding as part of the overall solution to school finance.

The new figures from the NEA indicated that Texas spent $7,335 per student last year, a 1.7 percent increase over the previous year. The national average is $8,208.

As far as teacher salaries, the group said Texas remained at 32nd, the same position it held a year ago. The average teacher salary in Texas last year was $40,494, a 1.3 percent increase over the previous year and $6,232 below the national average.

However, Texas State Teachers Association president Donna New Haschke said those numbers don't tell the whole story. The TSTA is the state affiliate of the National Education Association.

Ms. Haschke said just four years ago, in the 2000-01 school year, Texas teachers ranked 26th in salaries. In expenditures per student, Texas also ranked 26th that year.

The NEA numbers, collected from state education agencies, showed Texas employed more than 295,000 teachers last year to instruct 4.3 million students – producing an average student-teacher ratio of 14.6 to 1. That was roughly in the middle of all states.

The study also indicated that state revenues for public schools in Texas went up 1.1 percent last year, compared with a 4.1 increase in local property tax revenues for schools.

Critics of the state's school finance formula have cited the increasing reliance on local property taxes over the last several years while the percentage of state dollars in the system has dropped sharply.