Analyzing School Finance

Analyzing School Finance Issues

The Revenue per WADA @ Compressed Rate is substantially different between the Districts provided. District 1 stands at 5044.00 and District 2 is at 7206.00. Both districts have approxiametly the same number of students but the WADA@ Compressed Rate is much more for District 2. This is easy to see if you look at the Local District Property Values of each district and keep in mind “hold harmless”. This allowed district 2 to hold on to their local revenue and therefore made their compressed rate much higher.
The Total Target Revenue is slightly higher in District 2 at 34.5 million that in District 1 at 28 million. Once again the main reason for this is the higher Revenue per WADA @ compressed rate. When you multiply WADA times Compressed Rate WADA, District 2 stands about 6.5 million more.
District 2 has more teachers, librarians, nurses, and counselors than does District 1. District 2 has 307 where as District has 281. This throws up a red flag to me. I would think that these districts are backwards. Due to the large number of students with additional educational needs in District 1, it would appear that District 1 needed to be the district with more personnel. District 2 has less WADA but still maintains 26 more teachers. For such examples as this, I feel that “hold harmless” is not making Texas School Districts equitable and should be done away with.