One Question to focus on school finance

Yahoo

19-02-2025

Feb. 18—MIDLAND — To help the public get a handle on the opaque topic of school finance, Basin PBS will broadcast a special episode of One Question "Public Schools in Financial Crisis" at 8 p.m. Feb. 20.
Panelists include Ector County ISD Superintendent designate Keeley Boyer, Midland ISD Superintendent Stephanie Howard, Midland Council of PTAs President, Amber Davidson and Amy Dodson, Senior Regional Advocacy Director — West and Central Texas.
Becky Ferguson is hosting.
Ferguson asked the superintendents to talk about where they are financially.
Dodson will offer some history on how we got here.
During the last legislative session, school finance was "held hostage" by Educational Savings Accounts and districts have not received any additional money for six years, Ferguson said.
Meanwhile, prices have continued climbing.
"Basically, the purpose of the show was to just let citizens know where the school districts are, where our local school districts are, where the state school districts are, what it is our superintendents are hoping will happen, what Raise Your Hand Texas is hoping will happen," Ferguson said.
"One of the things that that they're hoping for is to change the way schools are reimbursed. Now they're reimbursed based on average daily attendance as opposed to average daily enrollment, and it makes a big difference. If you have a class of 30 and only 20 show up, the teacher doesn't get to go home for a third of the day, so they think that that's very important. Of course, we talk a lot about vouchers, and Raise Your Hand Texas feels that talked about how they don't think vouchers will serve Texas. Ninety percent (90%) of students in Texas and in the Permian Basin go to public schools so that's where Raise Your Hand Texas feels that public money should go," Ferguson said.
One of Raise Your Hand Texas' goals is to change the way students are tested rather than focusing on the STAAR test.
"Our goal always here at Basin PBS is to just give people the information that they need to make good decisions. As you have mentioned, public school finance is very complicated, so most people's eyes glaze over before they get an understanding of it. But basically, I think if somebody were to watch the program, what they would come away with is both our school districts are operating at deficits, and that means cutting positions. Every school district in Texas has been affected because there's been no additional money in six years," Ferguson said.
People know their costs have gone up for food, fuel and everything else people buy. Costs also have risen for public schools.
Ferguson said it's crucial that people tune in to the program.
"Ninety percent (90%) of students in Midland and Odessa are in public schools, so I think it's important that people understand that our school districts are in a pickle financially, and how that might or might not change with the current legislative session. I'm hoping that we're arming people with information that will help them understand what's going on," she added.
Howard said she mainly spoke about MISD's $42.5 million deficit, about $35 million of which is due to loss of Formula Transition
Grant funding.
"FTG is the Formula Transition Grant that we've been receiving since 2019. When the school finance system changes, there are districts that may stand to benefit significantly and districts that the new formulas/system will cause to lose significant amounts. MISD would have been one of the big losers with the changes in 2019. We have been one of the biggest recipients of that Formula Transition Grant. It went away this year — we did not receive those funds, so while about 60% of districts are running deficit budgets, ours is further complicated with those funds going away. We are working to make cuts and become more efficient to get back to expenses in line with revenue with the loss of FTG," Howard said in an email.
Like other districts, MISD is facing a 23 percent spike in inflation and no increase in the basic allotment since 2019. The basic allotment is the minimum amount the state gives to each school district to fund public education.
Howard said MISD is working with legislators to fully fund prekindergarten. The state funds only half a day and it costs MISD about $2.7 million to provide full-day preK over what is allocated.
On safety and security, MISD is having to subsidize about $3 million to cover the cost of the requirement to have an officer at every campus that passed in the last session.