The backstory
With the 88th legislative session closing without any action made on these issues, Mizani and Randklev wrote they anticipate a future special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott to further consider education priorities.
They also reminded the delegation about the duty that they all had as elected leaders to support education.
“The Texas Constitution leaves little doubt that a strong education is good public policy,” Mizani and Randklev said in the letter. “We know that addressing these issues isn’t easy, nevertheless it is our collective moral obligation and the Legislature’s constitutional duty to do so.”
The specifics
According to the letter, the per-student basic allotment was last addressed in 2019, and despite the rising cost of inflation, which has increased by nearly 20% in the last four years, the basic allotment of $6,160 per student has not been touched since then.
The letter also outlined the amount of recapture money that has been sent to the state from area school districts. According to https://recapturetexas.org, a Texas School Coalition website, recapture allows Texas to remove local property tax dollars from property-rich public school districts. Legislators then use these dollars to help balance the rest of the state budget. Recapture began as a limited revenue source for education funding, but it has grown exponentially—now taking nearly $5 billion in property taxes from Texas public school districts per year.
According to the letter, the following districts have sent back more than $440 million dollars since 2019:
- Keller ISD: over $7 million
- Carroll ISD (Southlake): over $163 million
- Grapevine-Colleyville ISD: over $273 million
“Lowering property taxes on behalf of all Texans and addressing the per-student basic allotment is not an either-or proposition,” Mizani and Randklev said in the letter. “We can and must do both.”
