The Texas Legislative session is set to begin in less than a month, and one major item on the agenda has been figuring out how to increase funding to Texas schools. In fact, a state commission has been set up to tackle that very question.
But now, as The Austin American-Statesman reports, it appears the commission has pushed the question of school funding aside, in favor of determining how to lower property taxes in Texas. Public school advocates are now warning that any kind of meaningful overhaul of school funding may be in jeopardy.
They say the commission’s focus on lowering property taxes could actually harm schools—the opposite of the commission’s intended effect—as the committee hasn’t even suggested how it would pay for the idea of lowering taxes, much less how it would increase the stream of money flowing into schools.
Property taxes are one of the main sources of revenue for Texas public schools.