Austin Mayor Steve Adler discusses local education challenges including recapture at a SXSWedu Conference & Festival town hall with four other mayors from across the nation.[/caption]

Austin Mayor Steve Adler assessed the state of local education at a SXSWedu Conference & Festival town hall with fellow mayors March 10, outlining a challenge property-wealthy school districts such as Austin ISD face, while also proposing a possible solution.

Adler explained to a national and international SXSWedu audience the statewide school finance concept of recapture, or the transfer of funds from Texas school districts with high property values to the state of Texas. He added that AISD sends hundreds of millions of dollars back to the state, and that is slated to continue for the upcoming 2016-17 fiscal year.

“While we have concerns with the equity associated with how the state determines the money [that] comes back, we do recognize that in this city when the school district taxes a penny, a lot of it leaves,” Adler said. “If the city [of Austin] taxes that same penny, it all stays.”

One such strategy to address recapture locally is a "tax swap" with AISD, which could help increase revenue for the school district, Adler said.

As proposed, AISD would agree to lower its tax rate and the city would agree to increase its tax rate by the same or lower amount, reserving funds for additional AISD services, Adler said.

Adler added that AISD and the city’s own legal teams are reviewing the tax swap concept to determine “how legal it is.”

“We fight this guerilla war all the time, so we’re constantly trying things,” Adler said. “And I think this one holds promise because I think that it fits within the rules and I think we’re going to make it happen.”

Adler also discussed how gentrification and charter schools have caused AISD to lose students.

Adler was joined by four other mayors including San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor; West Sacramento, California Mayor Chris Cabaldon; and Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Jorge Elorza, who all offered perspectives about education challenges and solutions in their own respective cities. Slate Author and Contributor Laura Moser moderated the discussion.