The Supt Dish
With the November elections over, many of our elected state officials
have filed several bills that will have an affect on education. The 85th
Legislative Session begins January 10, 2017 but many committees have conducted
several hearings during the fall listening to testimony to assist in crafting
bills. If you have kept up with the news, public education will most likely be
under attack by those who want to pass a voucher or educator savings account
bill to privatize education.
Over the last two weeks, the leaders of the Texas Senate, Lt. Governor
Dan Patrick, and Texas House Speaker Representative Joe Strauss, have very
different public educational priorities. Lt. Governor Patrick has a high
priority on vouchers, while Representative Strauss has a priority on addressing
and fixing the school finance system.
Locally, I have spoken at several groups this fall concerning the
projected loss funding that Goliad ISD is facing. This funding pool, Adjusted
State Aid for Tax Reduction (ASATR) was put in place during the 79th
Legislature in 2005. During the legislative session, the legislature cut school
property taxes by one third. No business or corporation much less a school
district can lose 1/3 of their revenue and continue to operate efficiently,
thus the state replaced this lost revenue with ASATR. However, as we faced an
economic crisis in 2011, the 82nd Legislature voted to phase out
ASATR by September 1, 2017.
As we have weathered the school funding crisis and received a Supreme
Court decision with the school finance lawsuit over equity, ASATR was not
addressed in the Supreme Court’s decision. Since the action taken by the 82nd
legislature, many school districts have slowly had their ASATR funding phased
out. As of the 2016-17 school year 253 school districts including Goliad ISD,
receive ASATR funding. Most of these districts rely heavily on ASATR funding for their budgets.
Of the remaining ASATR districts:
· 83% qualify as
small districts
· 75% serve
populations with more than 50% economically disadvantaged students
· 65% pay recapture
· 61% are rural
· 13% are mid-sized
· 5% are fast-growth
As you can see,
the districts receiving ASATR funding vary in size and geographic location with
the majority qualifying as rural and small districts. In the ESC 3 region, 21
districts still receive ASATR funding. For Goliad, ASATR funding is approximately
30% of our revenue for the 2016-17 budget. Of the district’s $14 million
budget, GISD receives approximately $4 million in ASATR funding. This
percentage is similar with many of the 253 districts still receiving ASATR
funds.
GISD initiated
strategies in the Spring 2016 to reduce expenditures as GISD faces the fiscal
cliff with ASATR funding. The net savings the district initiated was
approximately $1.1 million. GISD is still faced with having to reduce the budget
an additional $2.9 million.
As our state
legislature prepares for the opening of the 85th Legislative Session
on January 17, 2017, we ask that you express your concerns to our elected
officials below and ask that the Legislature extend ASATR funding to GISD and
school districts in similar circumstances.
State
Representative Geanie Morrison Senator
Lois Kolkhorst
Room 1N.9 PO
Box 12068
PO Box 2910 Capitol
Station
Austin, Texas
78768 Austin,
Texas 78711
