By Peyton Wolcott

September 22, 2008

Each year in Texas our list of so-called property rich schools grows larger thanks mostly to rising property values. This is important because our state "Robin Hood" school financing system forces rich districts to give their excess money to poor districts.

There are two problems with this system and both have to due with the lack of accountability. I wish there were a friendlier word to use; "accountability" has such a Grinchy sound to it; one guaranteed to drive all but the steeliest-hearted far away.

I'll keep this short. Medicine we need is not so bad if it's a short dose and sweet.

First: Robin Hood is a flawed system because there's no accountability on the receiving end.

Our lawmakers have rather naively assumed that if they give poor schools lots of money the poor schools will be diligent in how they spend it. This assumption would be akin to FEMA handing out those $2,000 debit cards that wound up being used for Gucci purses and steakhouse dinners. There's no governmental entity overseeing that Robin Hood dollars are being spent wisely in our schools.

Here's a good example: San Antonio's Edgewood ISD, the name district for several Robin Hood lawsuits.  EISD is a district so poor that it only generates about $1,000 per student from local taxes. Who among us would be so Grinch-like as to not want to help out a district so needy? However, now -- thanks to generous infusions of both state and federal tax dollars -- Edgewood has so much money they were able to establish an employee fitness center* complete with a full-time professional trainer, something most rich districts do not have for their employees. In fact during random anecdotal checks over the past few years I have not been able to locate a single so-called rich district with an employee fitness center.

Let's consider how much this one expense cost.  There's the building that had to be refurbished then equipment bought; salary for a full-time trainer and his assistants and their Social Security and insurance costs plus the maintenance of the building.  Suddenly Edgewood's employee fitness center might be costing in the healthy mid-six figures annually.

The rich districts donating the dollars had no say in how their money was being spent in Edgewood and our lawmakers seem afraid to look for themselves. It's so much easier and more PC to simply repeat the "mo' money mantra."

Second: Robin Hood is a flawed system because there's no accountability on the giving end beyond taxpayers voting in their choice of school board members and then hoping their trustees will keep their promises.  (We changed this in my own community by asking our five candidates to sign a pledge that they wouldn't do business with our district during their tenure.  All five won their seats which was a first and only occurrence in Texas in a single election.  None of our trustees violated their written pledge.)

In yesterday's Austin American-Statesman Judy Allen (school board president of newly rich San Marcos ISD) is quoted as saying "Look at us; we're not a rich district." Gee: $ 21,619** per student seems pretty wealthy to me. The other newly rich district singled out in the newspaper was Leander ISD which at $16,001 per student seems like it's also doing pretty well.

Unlike Dallas ISD which took a major PR hit earlier this month when it disclosed that it had misspent $64 million last year we don't have an easy way of knowing whether Leander and San Marcos have spent their money entirely wisely or not -- beyond Leander's having put their check register online for which I say "God bless them." Let's hope both districts were conservative stewards.  Let's hope none of their trustees were doing business in any way with their school district and let's hope none of their trustees are related to district employees or have any other reason for not holding their superintendents accountable by asking the tough questions that need to be asked.  Let's hope neither district has any credit cards for their employees and that if they have procurement cards someone other than the users' secretaries examines each and every receipt.  

Now that Leander and San Marcos have moved to the ranks of the property rich they're going to need to learn to be very efficient stewards of their dollars indeed -- unlike their poor cousin Edgewood who can afford an employee fitness center.

* Photo here: www.peytonwolcott.com/EdgewoodSaturday.html

** SOURCE: Texas Education Agency - Total receipts/all funds/2006-07 /PEIMS actual financials.

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LEANDER ISD - 24,230 students

TOTAL RECEIPTS ALL FUNDS $ 387,707,178 $16,001/student

TOTAL EXPENDITURES ALL FUNDS 2006-07 $ 336,613,626 $13,892/student

SAN MARCOS ISD - 7,179 students

TOTAL RECEIPTS ALL FUNDS 2006-07 $ 155,200,139 $21,619/student

TOTAL EXPENDITURES ALL FUNDS 2006-07 $ 120,503,722 $16,786/student

If you're in Texas you can look up your own school district's most recent actual financials here: www.tea.state.tx.us/school.finance/forecasting/financial_reports/0607_FinActRep.html

If you're not in Texas you can send this great resource to your own state DOE and ask them to start posting similar numbers.

Copyright 2008 Peyton Wolcott