A well written letter about Robin Hood and the failure of the State to fund their responsibilities
Dear Taxpayers:
You may have noticed that your recent tax bill included a line item attributed to the Austin Independent School District. I would like to explain what happens to over a third of the school property tax dollars you may believe are being used to support our own Austin students.
Currently, more than 35 cents of every AISD (M&O) tax dollar collected is kept by the state because AISD is considered property-wealthy under the state's recapture law, which is also known as Robin Hood. In other words, the district has been told it MUST pay in fiscal year 2017 an estimated $406 million of your property tax dollars to the state of Texas. The number of districts that are paying Robin Hood is higher than ever, and recapture has grown to a $2 billion revenue stream for the state.
Effectively, the legislature uses your tax dollars to reduce the amount it would otherwise contribute to public education from other sources. And, while local taxpayers will pay more than $1 billion to AISD this year, AISD keeps less than $700 million and receives only $37 million in state funding.
Yes, you read that correctly – in essence, AISD will send over 10 times more funds to the state this year ($406 million) than it will receive in state funding ($37 million). There are more than 1,200 school districts in Texas, and AISD is the single largest payer into recapture, representing nearly 12 percent of the total recapture revenue that the state collects.
During the next five years, we estimate the state will take almost $2.6 billion in recapture payments from AISD. By 2019, we expect more than half of every AISD dollar Austinites pay in taxes will be sent to the state if something does not change.
At Austin ISD, we face many growing challenges in serving our students and families, including:
* Over 50% of our students live in poverty; 28% are English language learners; and more than half are considered to be at risk of dropping out or not meeting the state’s academic standards.
* The cost of operating schools increases just as the cost of living in Austin does.
* Teachers are leaving AISD for more competitive pay in other districts.
Simply put: We need more of our local dollars to stay in our local schools.
Unfortunately, the state’s over-reliance on recapture is leading to an unintended, inequitable burden. Austin taxpayers and taxpayers in other communities are forced to shoulder a growing amount of the cost of public education in Texas.
We know there are districts throughout the state that need additional funds to educate their students, but it is the duty of the state—not local taxpayers—to provide those funds.
We ask for your support as we approach the legislative session and implore Texas lawmakers to keep local dollars in local schools. You can follow our efforts and learn more by visiting www.austinisd.org/legislature.
Again, thank you for your continued support of Austin public schools.
Paul Cruz, Ph.D.
Superintendent
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