By Jessica Hinojosa
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-492304.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Robin Hood takes from the rich, but doesn't help the poor.
The "Robin Hood" share-the-wealth system implemented in Texas began with an admirable goal - raising the quality of education in Texas public schools - but the implementation of the legislation failed.
The legislation, passed in the early '90s, originally planned to siphon tax revenue from wealthier districts into poorer districts. However, the amount reached disproportionately high levels as years passed, and the recipient districts were not improving as drastically as hoped. In 2001, the West Orange Cove School District in South East Texas first brought attention to the problems of Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code, or the "Robin Hood" program. The district challenged that the "Robin Hood" system was essentially a state property tax, something prohibited by the Texas Constitution.
Since the original charge, about 300 districts have joined in the battle against Chapter 41. The resistance to the program has arisen for several main reasons, all of which show the flaws of the "Robin Hood" program.
First, the basis of the funding is unconstitutional. The tax that takes money from wealthier districts to poorer ones is a property tax, which is only lawful when local. Yet when the money is being transferred to other districts, it becomes a state issue and is therefore a state property tax, which is illegal in Texas. Furthermore, taking funds from one district to another makes accountability for funding convoluted. If Highland Park is giving millions of dollars to poorer school districts, how will they ever know if their money is being used constructively?
Creating a communicative network among every district in Texas is a feat beyond our capacity. Instead, funding should stay within a district, and the state should find other sources of revenue for poorer districts.
Moreover, the system has not shown significant improvement of Texas education. In 2003 and 2004, Texas had the worst high school graduation rate in the nation. The percentage of Texans graduating was stagnant from 1993 to 2003 - stuck at 77%. If the "Robin Hood" system is supposed to bring up the weaker districts (which tend to be the poorer ones), the statistics show no signs of improvement.
Finally, the system essentially punishes wealthier districts by levying higher taxes. The goal of Chapter 41 is to take funds from wealthy districts into poor districts, but this seems to penalize the wealthy district for true "equality."
The "Robin Hood" system did not work as proposed, and it is time to create new forms of funding. The legislature needs to see the flaws and find an alternate system that truly does help raise the standard of education. Perhaps the answer is not even monetary; maybe school districts need to find other ways of improving, like better teacher training and fiscal efficiency. The possibilities for an alternative solution are numerous, and the optimal one needs to be found in order to save floundering Texas education.
Jessica Hinojosa, a senior at the Episcopal School of Dallas under Master Teacher Barbara Sampson, is the first-place winner of KERA's fall 2005 North Texas Student Voices Editorial Contest. The contest was held as a kick-off for KERA's Student Voices documentary, "High School: The Best and The Rest," which featured North Texas Student Voices students speaking out about the controversies involved in funding public schools.
North Texas Student Voices is part of the National Student Voices Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania with funding from the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. The project is the youth component of KERA's Voters Voice 2005, a multimedia election initiative created to give North Texas citizens a voice in local issues. In the year leading up to the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election, KERA's Voter's Voice project is focusing its coverage on education and school finance issues.
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