Equality, Equity and Adequacy

Define and provide two examples of each of these concepts in school finance:

Equality – Means that every student has the right to a free public education where all students have access to the same type of resources and programs.  All students should have an equal chance of getting the same type of education no matter where they live. 

Ex. Students from a poor district should have the same resources to understand the curriculum as students from a wealthy district.  If the wealthier district has a math intervention teacher, then the poorer district should also have a math intervention teacher.

Ex. Students from a poor district should have resources available like computer labs as wealthier districts.

Equity – means the system is fair and responds to the needs of individuals.  What this means is that the district should be able to help each student depending on their needs.  

Ex. Economic Disadvantaged Students should have tutoring and intervention help as needed.

Ex. Sub-groups have different needs.  For example, if a Hispanic sub-group needs extra help with math, then the district should provide the help they need.  The help should meet the needs of each group and it needs to be individualized according to the student needs.

Adequacy – means the school district receives financial support sufficient to meet state accreditation standards.

Ex. Teacher salaries should be sufficient to meet the state standards across the state.

Ex. Textbooks should be available to all districts regardless of their financial status.  All students should have access to textbooks.  

Reflection:

I have learned how equity, equality and adequacy all affect school finance.  Each of these words play a unique and vital part of ensuring schools is equal across the state.  Being adequate helps fund each district the same and allows them to meet state standards.  This has helped me understand how each district funds teacher salaries and textbook expenses.  With equity, districts must meet the needs of all individual students.  This part allows each sub-group to have clear and defined help for all sub-groups and students.  All students have a right to get extra help for all students, especially economic disadvantaged and students of less fortunate homes.  Giving equity allows students to have access to all available help as needed.  The last part is equality, which means all students have the right to a free education where they have access to the same types of resources and programs as other students.  This equality gives all students the same access as other students across the state.

I have learned many things about these definitions and it seems that I understand how they work individually.  By including these in our school finance section, we are able to reach all students in all areas of the population whether they are in districts that are wealthy or districts that are poor.  These definitions put things into perspective by allowing me to understand how the districts work in conjunction with the state.

Comparison of District Improvement Plans - Austin ISD to Huffman ISD

In reviewing Austin ISD’s District Improvement Plan and my district’s plan I see that there are some similarities and differences among them.  My district places curriculum alignment as one of its goals just like Austin ISD.  Alignment of the curriculum is a major part of improving the district.  It looked like Austin ISD displays their information for vertical teams across the district, maybe because they are a larger district than mine.  Our vertical alignment involves each subject area as well as curriculum coordinators.  These are similar to each other in the fact that we both are looking at aligning the curriculum vertically. Both plans look at school health and counseling services for all students.  My campus plan looks at PBS where Austin ISD’s looks at PBS, too.  Both plans also look at graduation rates and how they can be improved across the district.  There were many things about graduation rates and high school plans that were similar.  Both plans also discussed improving student test prep, credit recovery, and intervention help throughout the daily instructional time.  Both plans also discussed ways to improve the student drop-out rate and daily attendance rates.  Differences between how these are laid out are that Huffman ISD’s plans are broken down by goals, objectives, and activities that are there for improvement.  Austin ISD’s plan is broken down by activities that are documented throughout the year.  It does not break it down like my district’s plan.  The budget for AISD is extreme compared to Huffman’s budget, but I was amazed at the money they have in their budget compared to ours.  Austin ISD’s plan looks to be broken down into teams where each team focuses on certain topics.  My district’s plan is not broken down that way.  We list who may be of help, but not specific names and personnel required to be a part of the team.  I see parts of both plans being able to be tied together to create a unique and essential plan for my district.  In merging these two plans, I feel that one can be created to utilize district personnel to aide in the development of teams that can create an educational atmosphere where all students can learn and grow.

Important Issues that Impact School Funding

Three important things that impact State Funding are M&O rates, Property tax allotments, and weighted funding from attendance.

M & O rates, maintenance and operation rates, are important to school districts because it is derived from taxes and the state has set limits to it. Districts can try to raise this, but the state set a cap on the rate.

Property tax allotments are also important because they fund much of the educational system.  This is where districts seem to differ according to how much they bring in from property taxes as well as where the state can come in and assist if needed.  Some districts do not have as much in property taxes and this is where the state may assist to level the per student cap.

Weighted funding is important because it has many formulas that account to how much money each district gets.  It can be weighted according to attendance (WADA) and Tier I or Tier II funding for FSP.

The reasons I feel these are important to school funding is because all three work together to get funding for schools and the amount of funding is dependent on each of these things.

Reflection:

In looking at three issues impacting the state formula, I have begun to understand how each piece of the financial puzzle fits together.  I see how attendance, property taxes, and m & o rates affect how much money the school district actually receives.  I also can understand how some districts do not receive as much because they live in a poor area where taxes are not as high and property values are not equal.  The state trying to equalize and share funding has seemed to help, especially with the Robin Hood Plan.  Trying to give funds to less wealthy areas seems to be the right thing to help these districts afford many of the same resources that other districts have. 

I have learned many things that seem to help me understand how the state determines what they can use and how things must be shared across the state.  Some of these funds come from federal, state, and local taxes, too, which also give me some understanding of how the financial system works.

Important Events that Impact School Finance

The Glimmer-Aiken Act plays a vital part of the school system because it reduced the number of school districts, set a minimum number of school days and was able to raise teacher salaries.  This act changed the way public schools were funded because they used local tax money to fund public schools.  Their formula break-down was 80% funded by the state and 20% funded by local taxes.  This act was revolutionary because it was the first structured finance system in the State of Texas.  

The next part of school finance that I found intriguing was Edgewood vs. Kirby.  On May 23, 1984, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed a lawsuit against the Commissioner of Education, William Kirby.  This suit was filed due to discrimination against students in poor districts.  This lawsuit began with eight districts originally but sixty-seven other districts decided to join in on the suit. The main debate in this suit was over the inequality of local taxes across different school districts.  Some districts are very wealthy and others are not, which is where the inequality occurs.  One of the poorest districts, Edgewood ISD, had $38, 854 in property wealth per student and other districts had $570,109 in property wealth per student which was in Alamo Heights ISD.  This plan led to the next important part of school finance which was the Robin Hood Plan in 1993.      

The Robin Hood Plan in 1993 was another important and interesting plan in school finance.  This plan took funding from wealthier districts and gave it to districts that did not have as much revenue from taxes and such.  This plan was mean to level the funding across all districts and schools to make it equal.  This is a major turning point in school finance because many of the poorer schools were not able to have the computers, lower student/teacher ratios and extra resources available for improving education.  This plan capped the money per student so districts were more equal in funding.

I chose these three events because the caught my attention and made me realize the importance of creating fair and equal opportunities for all students.  If we think about students not having as much and living in poorer areas, there would not be as much money as other districts.  On the other hand, I can see the other side because if a person chooses to live in an area due to the school system, then if they are paying more to live there, they expect to have a better school for their children.  I can see both opinions on this case and see why these plans were put into place.  I think these events are critical in understanding how schools receive their funding and why.  

Reflection:
I have learned many different things about school finance during week 1 of School Finance.  From listening to the Professor’s lecture and researching these events, I have learned how each event plays a role in creating our educational system.  Posting three important events helped me understand how they played an important role in funding for schools and equality across different districts.  I can see how trying to level the funding across districts is fair, but also can hurt schools in wealthier districts because they have been accustomed to having an abundance of money and now they must reduce costs due to the reduction in their per student funding.  I chose the three events because they intrigued me and allowed me to understand the history of leveling the funding across districts and realizing how some of the poorer districts are able to fund some of their activities and resources due to the values in their property taxes and what they bring in.  This has made me realize that the state has tried to set funding on a basis to reach all students and create a learning environment for all students that is equal no matter where they live or how much they pay in taxes