LTISD Info

Recently the Americans for Posperity (AFP) Texas Blog wrote “Texas school districts claim shortfalls while holding millions in reserve.”

The blog references another excellent article “Texas school districts maintain billions in reserve funds” from the Texas Budget Source.

“Chairman Eissler [House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler] says every business, including school districts, need reserve funds for unexpected occurrences. According to Eissler, public school districts in Texas have more than $7.1 billion in reserve funds. In the last five years, Eissler says reserve fund balances per student have risen from $1,000 to $1,500.

“When times get tough, or you find you really need something, you can dip into the reserve fund,” said Eissler. “School districts are no different.” However, Eissler remembers last legislative session hearing a particular school district tell legislators if districts keep spending the money at the rate their going, they’ll be broke within five years.

“We’ve taught school districts, the state has, how to spend money. When they run out, they ask for more.” And with dozens of school districts across the state reporting budget shortfalls, the time to ask for more money is once again here. But with the state facing an estimated $18 billion budget shortfall and 29 percent of that going to public education, Eissler says it is time districts learn better spending practices.

“Most say spending more will give you better results,” said Eissler. “We’re working on that.” Eissler adds every year the state spends more on education but districts have trouble getting performance to rise accordingly.

“What that tells us is we’re probably spending money on the wrong thing. The only way we’ll be able to get a handle on that is to reallocate spending on things that work and less on things that don’t work,” said Eissler. “Rarely do we eliminate a program. We usually add them on. At some point in the financial future, we’re going to have to start replacing things more than we add things. We have to get this under control. Our future depends on it.””

- “Texas school districts maintain billions in reserve funds,” Sara Talbert, Texas Budget Source, July 27, 2010

Agreed!

Since when did extra taxes collected during “financial hardships” get reduced later when the difficult funding times went away?