A Report Card on Texas Education

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A Report CardonTexas Education
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Dire Circumstances TodayCataclysm Ahead
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Today
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Fiscal Capacity

• Fiscal capacity is the maximum amount of state
  and local funds available to local districts
  under the current school finance formulas.
• To meet rising costs and increasing standards,
  districts have accessed more and more of their
  available capacity, by raising their local tax
  rate and eliminating local tax exemptions.
• When districts reach the maximum, they must cut
  programs and lay off personnel to continue to
  meet rising costs, such as higher teacher
  salaries and health care benefits.

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Utilization of State System Revenue Capacity by
Type of School District
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The Truth About Increased Funding For Public
Education

• During the 77th Texas Legislative Session, The
  Legislature purposely took advantage of rising
  local values (and local taxes) to substantially
  reduce state program funding for public schools.
  And while they boasted of the new state aid for
  teacher health insurance, overall state aid to
  local districts actually declined in 2002-03
  compared to the previous budgeteven counting the
  new health insurance stipend!
• June 2001, The Budget Crisis That Never WasBut
  Soon May Be, Texas Taxpayers and Research
  Association

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The Texas Education System Requires More Money To
Keep Up With The Demands To
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Prepare Students To Meet Higher Academic
Standards
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Recruit and Retain Qualified Personnel (Texas
currently has a 40,000-teacher shortage)
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Pay Escalating Costs of Utilities, Fuel,
Insurance and Supplies
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Educate a Growing and Changing Population of
Students
According to the Texas State Data Center, The
number of Texans under 18 will continue to
explode. In the year 2000, there were 5.9 million
young Texans. If last decades migration
patterns hold, by 2030 there will be 10.8 million
young Texans.
Ethnic Diversity of the Population Enrolled in
Elementary and Secondary Schools and Colleges in
1990 and 2030
1990 Elementary and Secondary
2030 Elementary and Secondary
Anglo
Black
Hispanic
Other
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Build and Maintain Adequate Facilities
New Public School Bond Issue Activity in Texas
Source Municipal Advisory Council, Texas Bond
Reporter
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The State Share of Funding Schools has Declined
Steadily Over the Last 20 Years and is at Its
Lowest Point Since World War II.1945 55
1983 522002 41
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Loop ISD's Current Situation

• What The Future Holds

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DECLINE IN ENROLLMENT

• When a school has a decline in enrollment, the
  same number of teachers and auxiliary personnel
  are normally needed because the decline in
  students occurs over the entire population, not
  just one grade level or subject area.

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TAX RATE

• M O Tax Rate 1.18
• I S Tax Rate 0.1692
• CWE Tax Rate 0.27
• TOTAL TAX RATE 1.6192
• Loop ISD has a fund balance of approximately
  2.4 million. We are currently operating at a
  600,000 annual budget deficit. If we spend the
  entire budget and NOTHING changes, we will have
  spent our fund balance in 4 YEARS.

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LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD DECISIONS THAT ARE HELPING

• REDUCTION IN STAFF
• As new positions have opened up, we have not
  hired new personnel to fill them. For example,
  the Football/Spanish position, Teachers Aide,
  and Secretary.

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LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD DECISIONS THAT ARE HELPING

• PASSED A BOND ISSUE
• This helps in our local situation as this
  allows the school district to keep ALL of the I
  S money here in Loop.
• Ex. 208,000,000 208,000,000
• X .17
  X .17
• 353,600 353,600
• X .50
• 
  176,800

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HISTORY OF PAYMENTS TO STATE
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THE BOTTOM LINE

• The current school finance system is broken.
  Loop will be forced to reduce educational
  opportunities and services to the children of our
  community. Local taxpayers are doing all they
  can to support the school. We need help from the
  state in the form of relief from Robin Hood.

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TAX DISCOUNTS

• For many years, Loop ISD gave the following
  discounts for early payment of local taxes
• October 3
• November 2
• December 1
• Effective THIS year, these discounts are no
  longer going to be given.
• By eliminating these discounts, Loop ISD
  anticipates 70,000 additional revenue.

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LOOP TECHNOLOGY GRANT OPPORTUNITIES

• Loop ISD has successfully written several
  technology grants in the past several years that
  have been used to complement and supplant local
  budget revenues. Approximately 300,000 has been
  received from the Telecommunications
  Infrastructure Fund (TIF). LISD remains well
  ahead of most schools in technology.

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BUILDINGS FACILITIESOngoing Maintenance

• Heating A/C Units are at least 25 years old
• Carpet in Elementary needs replacing
• Roofing
• Electrical Many classrooms have only 2 outlets
• Plumbing
• Inflation

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Texas Schools theUNFUNDED MANDATE

• Examples are
• Preparation for TAKS
• Remediation for Students who fail the TAKS
• Instructional Resources for Students who fail 3rd
  Grade Reading (No more social promotion)
• Resources for Title I aides
• State teachers salary steps and auxiliary
  personnel costs
• Auditing costs

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Loop ISDs Circumstances Today

• We, our Board of Trustees and staff, are
  exhausting all creative abilities to cut costs in
  an inflationary economy, with dropping interest
  rates. The Robin Hood system is killing us.
  We cannot continue to operate in the future as we
  have in the past. Something must give.

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2003
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The New TAKS Will be Tougher

• It would do no good for me to sugarcoat it. We
  know children will not do as well as they did
  last year. Thats a given.
• --Felipe Alanis, Commissioner of Education

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TAAS vs. TAKS

• The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS)
  tests
• Statewide curriculum in reading and mathematics
  at grades 3 through 8 and the exit level
• Writing at grades 4, 8, and the exit level
• Science and social studies at grade 8.
• Spanish-version TAAS tests are administered at
  grades 3 through 6.
• Satisfactory performance on the TAAS exit level
  tests is prerequisite to a high school diploma.

• The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
  (TAKS) will include
• Testing Science in grades 5th, 10th and 11th
• Testing Social Studies in grades 8th, 10th and
  11th
• Testing two more grade levels 9th and 11th
  grades
• Requiring a higher level of math to graduate
  Algebra and Geometry (No longer using
  Pre-Algebra)
• Requiring 3rd grade students to pass TAKS
  (reading) before being promoted to the 4th grade.

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Sample Question 11th Grade TAKS
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Current and Projected Pass Rates for all Third
Grade Students Taking Reading and Math TAKS Test

• Currently, 81 of all students meet the minimum
  expectations under the current TAAS standard.
• It is projected that only 66 of all students
  will meet the minimum standards under the new
  TAKS standard.
• Source TEA, 2003 Early Indicator Summary Report

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Property Tax Cap Predictions

• Today, 250 out of 1,040 school districts are at
  the 1.50 property tax cap.
• By fall 2003, an estimated 400 districts will
  have hit the 1.50 tax cap.

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Texas Education As We Know It Today
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2004
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Districts Will Be Forced to Cut All but the
Courses Mandated by Law
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2005 and Beyond
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Without a Substantial Injection of Cash, the Very
Near Future of the Texas Education System Will Be
Characterized By

• Plummeting test scores
• Increasing number of dropouts
• Severe cuts in essential curricula and
• Massive teacher layoffs.

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What Texas Education System Will Look Like in
2005

• As our students become less prepared to enter the
  workforce, businesses and industries will move
  away from Texas
• Revenues will shrink at all levelscity, county
  and state
• In every neighborhood, city and region of the
  stateurban, suburban and ruraleducation
  shortfalls will snowball.

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Why We Are Telling You This Now
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Texas Current Level of Excellence

• In a recent report released by The Princeton
  Review, Texas was rated as having the second best
  student testing program in the nation. (Testing
  the Testers 2002 An Annual Ranking of State
  Accountability Systems released 06-28-02)
• Achieve Inc., a non-profit bipartisan
  organization, recently reported that Texas is
  among a handful of states that has come the
  farthest in raising student standards and
  achievement. Texas has a history of serving as
  a model of reform for other states, the report
  says. (Aiming Higher released 06-24-02)
• For more information on the reports go to
  www.princetonreview.com and www.achieve.com.

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We Dont Want You To Ask Us Why didnt you
tell us this was happening?
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Its Not Too Late To Fix The Problem
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Take the PledgeI, Representative/Senator John
Doe,take the pledge to support additional state
revenue for public education.Texas Association
of School AdministratorsTexas Association of
School Boards