Equality, Equity, Adequacy

Relating to school finance equality simply means that students in a certain school district do not have an advantage over students in another school district. In my opinion, this is not in place in Texas currently. We have many (especially) suburban school districts and Chapter 41 school districts that have an extreme financial advantage over rural and Chapter 42 school districts. If you look within the budget there is at least an equity pertaining to class offerings. There is funding set aside for Texas Virtual Schools which will allow some smaller districts to offer courses that are normally only offered at larger school districts. These are two examples that stick out to me pertaining to equality among school districts.

When looking at school finance and equity this to me is fairly simple. Equity is basically adhering that all students are to receive an equal opportunity and equal funding for an education. Using a weighted formula that accounts for our different populations, Special Education, Career and Technology, ESL, home bound, and etc) we should all be funded equally on a weighted ADA system. In my mind this is the fairest system out there, and would ensure that all students had the same opportunities across our state. Unfortunately, in Texas the politicians will not allow this to happen, and the power in Texas right now is in the suburban schools. Hence, they have the financial advantages.

Adequacy when talking about school finance means that schools should funded at a level that satisfies the expectations of the Legislature. It is a whole lot less expensive to educate a student if all you want us to do is teach Reading, Writing, and Math and let local schools decide how best to do that. But, when you start adding in volumes of mandates, required programs, testing programs, expectations for results, technology requirements, audit after audit, form after form, submission after submission, it takes a lot of money to operate to meet these expectations. Then when you fund some districts at a much higher level than others, you are asking rural or Chapter 42 schools to perform with one hand behind their back. A couple of examples pertaining to school finance is the base teacher scale for Texas teachers and the adequacy of textbook funding for school districts no matter what size or classification.