Dispelling the Myths: The Facts About Texas Public Education

This information was compiled by the Texas Association of School Boards

1. Texas is a high-tax state and spends too much on government services.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Total taxes in Texas are among the lowest in the nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas ranks 49th among the states in total tax revenues per capita. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan education organization that has followed state and local tax issues for over 75 years, ranks the Texas state and local tax burden ‘among the nation’s lowest.’ Compared to other states, the Texas sales tax (combined state and local) is 15th highest in the nation. Texas ranks 13th among the states in property tax burden. How, then, is Texas a low-tax state when the sales and property tax burden is high? The answer is that Texas lacks an income tax. Total tax comparisons among the states consider business and personal income taxes a well as sales, property, and other taxes. The reality for Texans is that even though they pay relatively higher sales and property taxes, their overall state and local tax burden is much lower than other states. When per-capita tax revenues are low, spending on government services is also low. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of Local Government Finances in 2003-04, Texas total current spending on education ranks 35th among the states and is $1,000 per student lower than the national average.

2. Texas schools have more than enough money already.

In 2003-04, Texas school districts spent about $31 billion for operating costs. The per-student cost for operations is about $7,209very similar to the amount reported by the U.S. Census. Assuming students attend school seven hours a day for 180 days, the per- hour cost is a modest $5.72. With all the requirements in law (highly qualified teachers, security, testing, special program requirements, and other mandates) it is not hard to see why $40 per day doesn’t stretch far enough. As mentioned above, this level of expenditure ranks Texas about 35th among the states in spending per student for operations and well below the national average.

3. Texas public schools are inefficient

According to a report presented to Texas legislators in March 2004, an economic measurement of efficiency shows Texas public schools to be 93 percent efficient, on average. Texas A&M researchers prepared this report along with a cost analysis of Texas public education. The researchers noted that the 7 percent inefficiency might be due to art, foreign language, and physical education and other instructional requirements that cannot be included in a cost analysis because relevant test scores are lacking.

4. Schools have too many administrators.

Central administration costs represent a small portion (about 3 percent on average) of school district budgets. Compensation for superintendents, business managers, and other central office departments contribute to administrative costs as do the cost of tax appraisal, tax collection, audits, legal services, and accounting. Campus administration accounts for about 6 percent of budgets. It should be noted that the ratio of non-administrators to administrators in Texas school districts is greater than 12 to 1. From an efficiency point of view, Texas education compares favorably to other industries. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the ratio in transportation to be 9 to 1 and in manufacturing it is 6.2 to 1. Public schools are not “top heavy” with administrators.

5. Student performance in Texas is weak

In February 2006, Governor Rick Perry told business leaders, educators, and legislators that no other state can measure up to the successes Texas has seen in improving education. His office provided data showing that Texas scores on national tests have increased in every age group, subject area, and subgroup. For example, African American and Hispanic students score well above their counterparts in other states in mathematics, ranking Texas at the very top in mathematics in grades 4 and 8 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Test scores are not all that matter: Texas was the first state to make a college- preparatory program the default curriculum for all high school students. This year the legislature strengthened those requirements by requiring four years of high school courses in core subjects. This and other reforms will serve to strengthen student performance even further. Is there more to accomplish? Of course there is more to do. All districts are reaching for higher student academic performance, but they are reaching higher from a position of strength, not weakness.

6. Texas students are trapped in poorly performing schools

Texas identifies poorly performing schools as “academically unacceptable” in its accountability system. In 2005, 3 percent of non-charter public schools and 16 percent of charter schools were identified as academically unacceptable.

Students are not trapped into attending the low-performing charter schools because parents must choose to send their children to these schools. For non-charter public schools, Texas offers Public Education Grants to students attending a school that is academically unacceptable for three years in a row, permitting the student to attend a public school that is performing better. Another important safeguard is the federal accountability requirement that students in schools that fail to meet adequate yearly progress get the opportunity (and financial support) to transfer to another school. Finally, the Texas education commissioner has the authority to make significant changes to poorly performing schools, beginning in the second year of poor performance. Poor performance is, indeed, unacceptable. Texas educators and policymakers have installed these and other safeguards to make sure all students have an opportunity for a high quality education, and no student is ever trapped.

7. Spending 65 percent of school district budgets on teacher salaries and classroom materials will increase student performance.

Standard & Poors, the highly regarded credit rating agency, conducted an investigation of the idea that spending 65 percent of budgets on classroom instruction will result in student performance gains. Their analysis shows that there is no minimum instructional spending allocation that necessarily produces higher student achievement. Standard & Poors cautions readers that their findings do not suggest that money does not matter. It does matter, but “the percentage allocated to instruction may need to vary from one district to another for legitimate reasons.”

8. No one really knows how Texas school districts spend their money.

Texas receives high marks in national surveys for providing a wide array of data for all aspects of school district operations and performance. Every school district budget is an ‘open record’ and is available to the public. The school board must conduct a public hearing each year about the budget before it is adopted. Information about school district finance appears at the conclusion of each district’s Academic Excellence Indicators System (AEIS) report. The same is true for the campus AEIS reports. You can locate AEIS reports at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/ . In addition, budget and actual finance reports for a six-year period are available for every Texas school district at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/adhocrpt. If anything, there is more information available than most people can make use of. For that reason, the legislature now requires school districts to post a standard budget summary to their web sites each summer, before they adopt the property tax rate.

9. Public schools are not safe.

In 1999, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions heard testimony from school safety experts that “schools are the safest places for children in the entire community.” Schools do not create violence. However, this does not in any way reduce the responsibility of school officials to take balanced, rational risk-reduction measures to prevent violence. Any violent incident in a school is unacceptable, and it is important to assess security risks in our schools on a regular basis to make sure that schools continue to be the safest places for children in the entire community.

10. The academic performance of students in the U.S. does not measure up to the performance of students in other developed countries.

U.S. performance is beginning to measure up with other developed countries, but there is still progress to be made. Evidence from a 2001 international study of grade 4 reading literacy reports U.S. 4th graders having higher average reading literacy scores than the international average and higher scores than 23 of the 34 other participating countries. An international assessment of 15-year-olds’ reading literacy in 2000 found that U.S. students scored at the average. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assesses 4th and 8th grade mathematics. From 1995 to 2003, U.S. 4th grade math performance did not change, but performance of 8th grade students improved. In 2003, U.S. students scored better in grade 8 mathematics than students in 13 of the 21 other participating countries. In a separate test of mathematics literacy, U.S. 15-year-olds had lower average mathematics literacy scores than students in the test group of developed countries, and too many U.S. students were at the lowest mathematics literacy performance level.

* Definitions used by the Texas Education Agency and the U.S. Census Bureau differ slightly, resulting in about $100 difference in reported operating costs. An additional $7.4 billion is spent in Texas each year on debt service and capital outlay. The cost of operations plus debt service and capital outlay is about $7.10 per student per hour.