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Mexican American Caucus Releases School Finance Report

By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com

Austin, TX – "Political will" is the element that determines Texas' future regarding public school finance, said Rep. Rick Noriega (D-Houston), as the House Mexican-American Legislative Caucus released its Report of the Task Force on Public School Finance today. Noriega said that political will can determine if the Texas Legislature simply tinkers on the edge of the state's school finance problem or comes up with a "sustainable" solution to the problem.

The report is the result of a series of meetings throughout the state, where the task force heard from educators, students, parents, business leaders and others. The themes in those discussions are presented in the report, said Noriega.

The Houston Democrat said the report captures the history of school finance in Texas and "how we got to where we are today." It also includes Caucus recommendations - from enhancing equity to adjusting funding weights, addressing facilities funding and the Caucus' position on taxes and initiatives relative to increasing revenues. "There needs to be increased funding in public school education," said Noriega and the benefits for teachers that were withdrawn by the state need to be "recommitted and enhanced."

As the House Select Committee on Public School Finance met during the Caucus' press conference, Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) said as that legislation is debated in committee, others will offer alternative ideas. "If we're not coming back till next Tuesday, the most effective way the members of the Caucus can contribute will be through individual proposals offered informally during the committee process."

Forty percent of the students currently in public schools are Latino, said Noriega, and that figure will increase to more than 60 percent in coming years. "As we are involved in this discourse of public school education and those who will be most effected, it is imperative we inject ourselves into this debate. As these kids go, so goes the state of Texas.

"We have got to make sure that those interventions and ideas are at the table to shape the process. We cant' afford not to."

Because members of the Caucus for the most part are not in the majority party in the House, Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Alpine) said they can only make changes through amendments to the bill - "not in a wholesale fashion, but in a step-by-step fashion."

He said Caucus members "can make changes at the edges that will change the process" and "set parameters of where we want the state to go and what has to be in a plan before it is acceptable to the majority of the members of the Caucus."

The "real emergency" of this special session, said Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth), is that "we are not adequately funding public education."

Because the House will not be in session again until Tuesday, any bills members might file will not even be read or referred until next week. "So we can't even offer a plan," said Villarreal. Instead, the members will have to follow the committee action and Rep. Kent Grusendorf's (R-Weatherford) "shell bill" and offer ideas in the committee.

He said the Caucus task force report "sets the criteria to use for engaging in constructive dialogue" with House colleagues. He called it a "good faith effort" that indicates, "We want to improve our schools and here are our priorities."

"The governor said he would call us in if there was consensus," said Noriega. "There's not consensus." He said there appears to be a "product" in the House and encouraged the media to ask the leadership (that he called "the Kitchen Cabinet") regarding that product. "They are taking testimony on something that is a straw man."

"We're concentrating on setting parameters because we understand every dollar lost in our schools is a lost opportunity for our kids," said Gallego. "We're protecting equity. The issue isn't partisan. There aren't Democratic and Republican kids." Gallego said the continued decrease in the state's portion of the funding of public education is the problem. "That's the panic on some people's part to fix it," he said. "We're going to be part of the debate. We're here and we're not going away."

Noriega said the report recommends that sales taxes not be increased, saying they are regressive taxes and "hurt those least able to pay." Additionally, he noted, sales tax revenues are declining and can't sustain the state's future growth. "We've become over-dependent on property taxes and don't want to become over-dependent on sales taxes."

The majority of members of the Caucus are prepared to vote against any increases in sales tax, said Gallego, to ensure the state does not "trade current problems with the property tax for future problems with the sales tax."