Teacher union says Borderland school districts aren’t funded fairly

Texas students aren’t funded fairly, according to state District Judge John Dietz. This summer he ruled the current school finances system is depriving our children of their share of educational opportunities.

“Each school district should get the same amount of state aid per student,” said Socorro Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Tony Reza.

But they don’t. Reza said some school districts in Texas spend $8,000 per student, others as low as $4,000. SISD spends about $5,700 per student, EPISD about $6,000.

“The school districts are not being funded at the level they need to be,” said Socorro American Federal of Teachers Field Manager Lilly Ruiz.

In 2011 Texas legislature was facing deficit. So they cut about $5.4 billion from K-12 education. In 2013 they restored $3.4 billion.

“But they didn’t restore it fully,” Reza said.

As a result, SISD, American Federation of Teachers and around 1,000 other districts are asking the legislature to move forward with that. The Socorro’s AFT is going a step further, and asking the school board to sign a resolution, promising it will call on state officials to bring back all $5.4 billion dollars by 2016.

“In 2008, high school teachers had 170 students a day,” Ruiz said. “Ever since then to try to combat that shortfall some teachers have 220-250 students in a day.”

Ruiz says this isn’t fair to students. According to the Texas Tribune, in 2010 SISD had $4,584 to spend per student on academic programs. Highland Park, a well-to-do district in Dallas, had $5,254. Property values and the make up of school populations determine how much state funding a district gets. But there is to make it equal across the state.

“The bottom line is that some schools district may generate $5,000 per student, other school districts might generate $6,000 per student,” Reza said. “But when you’re talking about $1,000 difference. For a school district our size, 42,000-44,000, the school district could be generating additional $44 million in state revenue.”

Both AFT and SISD strongly believe the board will support the resolution, Tuesday, Dec. 16 at the board meeting.