But in property-poor districts, even a high tax rate would not yield much revenue. And they could do it with low tax rates because their property values were so high. They could attract the best teachers by offering high salaries and provide special features, like a planetarium at Highland Park High. This gap means that the have-nots (school districts where property values are low) perpetually seek equality with the haves (where property values are high), producing political class warfare.īefore the late eighties, rich districts like Highland Park, a superaffluent enclave in North Dallas, were free to augment state aid with local tax dollars. Boles, the poorest district in Texas, has just $12,000 of property value per student. But there are huge disparities in property values-and, therefore, in the ability to raise money-among the state’s 1,034 school districts. The state provides only 42 percent of the money the rest comes from local property taxes. Texas relies on a mixture of state and local funding to pay for its schools. ![]() Testifying before the House public education committee in February, a school-finance expert with impeccable conservative credentials recommended a flat tax of 2.25 percent on taxable income to fund public schools. Not only is this the best solution, it’s also the only solution. There is, I propose, a simple way to get rid of Robin Hood, reduce property taxes, and put an end to decades of litigation over school finance: Pass a state income tax. The trouble is that the sheriff is going about this thing all wrong. But I also want one that is fair to everybody else. Don’t misunderstand: I want a school-finance system that’s fair to the poor. I live in Austin, a school district that the state considers rich, and I have seen the property taxes on my home go through the roof while the revenue is grabbed by Robin Hood and redistributed to poor districts. The modern sheriff is having no more success in getting rid of Robin Hood than the original did. ![]() Some of their own troops in the Legislature come from poor areas in the countryside, where Robin Hood generously bestows money. They have sworn an oath to run a sword through the Robin Hood school-finance law (so named because it takes from the rich and gives to the poor), but just as in Merrie Olde England, they can’t do it. A modern version of this ancient tale is onstage daily at the Capitol during the current legislative session, where the roles of the sheriff and his henchmen are being played by the state’s new GOP leaders. ![]() The sheriff puts a price on Robin’s head, lures him into traps, and has him cornered and hopelessly outnumbered-but catch him and kill him he cannot. ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN A CINEMATIC version of the story of Robin Hood knows the ineffectualness of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
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