Texas School Funding:
The Current System
Funding for Texas’s
schools is derived from local funds, state funds and federal funds.
During the 2002-2003 school year, about 49 percent of school funds
came from local sources, 41 percent from state funds and 10 percent
from federal sources. The percent of revenue from each source will
differ from district to district because of variations in local
property wealth and student population.
The current funding mechanisms
are as follows:
Local Funds
Property Taxes
Each school district
adopts two tax rates each year: a "maintenance
and operations" tax rate and a "debt service" or "interest
and sinking fund" tax rate, which is only levied when a
district has debt.
Under current Texas law,
maintenance and operations taxes may not exceed $1.50 per $100
of taxable value, while debt service
taxes
can not exceed $0.50 per $100 of taxable value.
Debt service taxes needed
to relieve finance debt issued before September 1, 1992 are not
capped.
State Funds
See below for selected
items in the Texas Education Agency budget request for the 2006-2007
biennium. (These budget
requests include
state and federal funds).
Foundation School
Program---Equalized
Operations
Composed of a variety
of state taxes and fees including sales and franchise taxes
$21.30 billion
Equalized Facilities
$1.39 billion
Student Success Initiative
$646 million
Programs for At-Risk
Students
$2.73 billion
Instructional Materials
$327 million
Educational Technology
$348 million
Educator Recruitment,
Retention, and Support
$736 million
Exceptional Items Request
(requests beyond the basic appropriations request,
to be filled if funds
are available)
$373 million
for Student Success Initiative
$387 million
for Textbooks
$301 million
to increase the Guaranteed Yield
$180 million
for Equalized Debt Allotment
$150 million
for Instructional Facilities Allotment
Source. Legislative Appropriations
Request for Fiscal Years 2006
and 2007. Texas
Education Agency,
August
2004. Federal Funds
Generally, federal funds
are appropriated for special
programs or to provide
services to
a specific group
of students.
Because they are specifically
earmarked for these programs,
they cannot be used to
replace state or local dollars to
fund a
program.
Approximately half of
these funds go directly to school
districts,
while
the remainder
goes to the
state or
to regional education
service centers. |
