ExampleOutline1_1 PropertyTaxesandSchoolFundinginTexas.pptx
Below is the statement I used for the topic selection, property taxes, and school funding. ″I am choosing the issue of property taxes and school funding. Property tax rates are established by local school boards and are determined by state funding and influenced by local property values. I chose the topic partly due to professional curiosity and part curious taxpayer who has witnessed a constant increase of property taxes over the past few years. The formula utilized by the Texas Legislature to determine the distribution of school funding is also of interest to me, as the Legislature has to take into account state revenue sources. I fully expect my research to be inclusive of recapture, as the process is inclusive of local school districts sending some of their local property tax revenue to the state.″ Here are the parameters of the paper. In writing your paper, you should use analytical frameworks developed in this course to address these questions: Why was the policy enviro…..
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A written outline example has been provided for you below. The minimum required information
for your outline is as follows:
a. The Policy Issue:
i. What is the policy issue?
ii. How was the policy issue defined and by whom?
To what extent was the national policy environment and/or state policy environment important?
A written outline example has been provided for you below. The minimum required information
for your outline is as follows:
a. The Policy Issue:
iii. What is the Policy issue?
iv. How was the policy issue defined and by whom?
v. To what extent was the national policy environment and/or state policy
environment important?
vi. What policy actors are interested in the issue and what different positions
do they take?
b. The Development of the Issue
vii. Why was the policy environment conducive to the development of interest
in your issue?
viii. To what extent was the national policy environment and/or state policy
environment important?
c. Implications:
ix. Based on the current balance of power, what do you think will happen?
x. What are the long term implications for the organization?
d. Summary:
xi. One page summarization of the whole paper (details not required as part
of outline assignment)
e. Reflection:
xii. One page reflection on your own values and philosophy or ideology, how
would you critique the definition(s) of the issue which seems to have
prevailed? (details not required as part of outline assignment)
f. References:
xiii. List of references to be used
xiv.
xv. What policy actors are interested in the issue and what different positions
do they take?
g. The Development of the Issue
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xvi. Why was the policy environment conducive to the development of interest
in your issue?
xvii. To what extent was the national policy environment and/or state policy
environment important?
h. Implications:
xviii. Based on the current balance of power, what do you think will happen?
xix. What are the long term implications for the organization?
i. Summary:
xx. One page summarization of the whole paper (details not required as part
of outline assignment)
j. Reflection:
xxi. One page reflection on your own values and philosophy or ideology, how
would you critique the definition(s) of the issue which seems to have
prevailed? (details not required as part of outline assignment)
k. References:
xxii. List of references to be used
- EXAMPLE OUTLINE FOR EDUCATIONAL POLICY ISSUE PAPER
- EDSU 7303 | Public Policy in Education
Property Taxes and School Funding in Texas
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Professor
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Currently, there is a high need for adequate resources to provide students with the best quality education.
The resources are required to offer the right classroom sizes and employing low-cost alternatives to quality and trained teachers.
One of the biggest sources of these resources is property tax through the state.
Therefore, this vividly explains in the Texas Legislature in 2019 passed House Bill 3 (HB3), which effectively increased allocation to the education system.
The legislation also increased tax rates for districts with slow property value growth.
The system is being reevaluated to ensure that it still serves the purpose to which it was enacted
Introduction
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Development of the Issue
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The most significant challenge facing HB 3 is its ability to meet the school system’s needs while also ensuring the Texas revenue system can fulfill its promises.
This challenge is especially significant because the state has other responsibilities other than .funding education.
Moreover, Texas schools are funded by the collections from local property tax and state revenue, which creates a balancing issue attempt and ensures that the schools are adequately funded.
Each district collects its property to fund its operations.
However, according to the law, if a district fails to meet its target, it asks for help from the state.
The states help districts since each state has a responsibility to ensure that the schools are adequately funded.
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The realization of these dreams will depend on the ability of the state to maintain for the school system predictable yet sustainable funding.
It is therefore critical to focus on the connection between school funding and property taxes
the issue of contentment for this topic is the gradual decline of the state’s share in public school funding from 2010 to 2019 from 48% to 40%.
Several issues have arisen based on this structure, and this is what the Texas Legislation sought to solve with the introduction of HB 3 (Ready, 2020).
One of the issues is the growing imbalance between the state and local sources of public school funding.
Most of the state funding provided is meant to be an alternative to the school property tax revenue.
Development of the Issue
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Property tax collections increase when the economy is doing well and at the same time helps the schools get the money allocated to them by the state.
The system allows schools to be in charge of the property tax collections, and it puts the schools at an advantage in case the local property tax collections are high (Ready, 2020)
a decline in the funding from the state put an unnecessary strain on local school districts. As a result, every school district plans not to increase the local taxes in the community.
HB 3 offers a radical option whereby the state will not completely cut state funding if the property tax values rise (Villanueva, 2018)
Development of the Issue
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Reflections
Another issue that faces the education system is the imbalance in the number of funding schools receive.
To deal with this imbalance, the state will have to allocate more funds to support public education, mostly from the revenue obtained from sales taxes all over the state.
It is a possibility that property value may keep rising, but the local homeowners will not see the actual results in their school property tax bill.
Reducing the rate will instead lower the growth rate of property tax bills for individuals.
For Texans, it is the reason for reducing the funding generated by school districts from property tax.
Losing this revenue will affect the state severely as it will be costly with no possible and direct way to replace the revenue (Ready, 2020).
The result will be the inability of the state to keep up with the promises and the intentions highlighted in HB 3.
Before implementing HB 3, school districts used a formula of $1.00 of tax for every $100 worth of property to the property owners.
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property tax rate cuts are critical in helping low-income property owners see the increased tax bills
The HB 3 bill reduced the M&O Tier I tax rates by seven cents, creating savings for the owners of $0.93 for every $100 worth of property
the appraisal growth is the only factor that improves the property tax increase and not the rate increase.
Whenever there is a significant drop in the M&O tax rates, it is up to the state to find additional or alternative funding to meet the gaps left by the declined or lost funding
the Texas Legislature must increase the homestead exemption, limiting the taxation of property on some property with certain values.
Reflections
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While developing the education funding system, lawmakers came up with recapture, or similarly called Robin Hood, which was developed as a strategy to ensure a balance and equality between rich and poor school districts in 1993 (Villanueva, 2018).
If the system is not altered soon, the local tax dollars will be more than the state funding in the next few years.
Currently, recapture is a component of the property wealth level when instead it could be aligned to the money allotted for each student.
The inherent issue with the Robin Hood system is that the quality of education a child can access depends on their ZIP code.
Before implementing the recapture system, the wealthiest school districts had over nine times the same level of funding gained from local property tax revenues compared to the other districts.
Recapture
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School districts that cannot raise enough revenue from property tax are referred to as ‘property poor schools’ and fail to meet the minimum funding level set by the state (Chingos & Blagg, 2017).
The state, therefore, is mandated to help these school districts meet the minimum requirement.
if a school district can exceed the guaranteed amount, the states recapture the surplus amounts
The revenue recaptured from the property-wealthy schools is included in the state’s education fund and assists the property-poor school districts and charter schools
Recapture
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Reflections
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Texas is a prosperous state; however, the existing framework and the lawmakers fail to provide the state with a reliable financial system to fund education.
The failures of the lawmakers and the state government to provide an efficient system results in economic, academic, and physical repercussions
according to the Texas Education Agency, there is expected to be a significant decline in the state funding to public education in the next years (Wheeler & Dallas-Fort Worth, 2019).
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There is a need for substantial changes in the school system to improve the state’s quality of education for its children.
The current system’s failures, such as lack of equitability and inadequacy, harm the schools the most (Hodges et al., 2018).
The elected legislators’ role is to ensure that the existing laws serve and protect their citizens, something the current system has failed to do in protecting schools.
Voters, therefore, should hold the elected leaders accountable by demanding a system that gets rid of the disparities and inequalities
The state also has to correct the era that has been around for decades, the lack of funding for special needs education because all students are equal
With an increase in allocated funds, the states can employ and train specialists to teach disabled-eligible students who have been left out by the system for a while now.
Another issue that has been on the rise and plaguing the education system is gun violence and a rise in suicide rates among the youth.
The Texas Legislature has to ensure that all schools meet the requirements for counselors as recommended, at least one for every 250 students.
Additional funding can be obtained by increasing sales tax or lowering expenditures.
Implications
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summary
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Providing public education is one of the foremost obligations of the elected leaders.
The Texas Constitution demands that children must all have access to a proper education.
The elected leaders have to ensure that the system provides a safe, efficient, and professional education system that offers children similar opportunities to succeed in life.
The current issue is the high rise in property value and how it will affect the local taxpayers.
An increase in property tax means that the state will not have to intervene and send many funds to the schools.
The disparities in wealth in many cases lead to various forms of informal and formal racial bias and segregation that have affected many communities over the years.
to deal with these issues, the system must be managed well to equalize the funds allocated to all school districts.
If a school cannot raise enough funds for its budget through the local property tax collections (M7O Tier I), the state is expected to bridge the gap.
If the funds generated exceed the budget, then there are options the state can apply
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References
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Chingos, M., & Blagg, K. (2017). Making sense of state school funding policy. Urban Institute. Retrieved December, 4, 2017.
Hodges, J., Tay, J., Desmet, O., Ozturk, E., & Pereira, N. (2018). The effect of the 2008 recession on gifted education funding across the state of Texas. AERA Open, 4(3), 2332858418786224.
Knight, D. S. (2016). Were High-Poverty Districts in Texas Disproportionally Impacted by State Funding Cuts? School Finance Equity in Texas Following the Great Recession.
Ready, Z. D. (2020). An Analysis of District Tardy Policies for Schools from a 2019 Texas Education Agency Campus Comparison Group (Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University-Commerce).
Villanueva, C. (2018). Investing in Our Future: What You Need to Know as Texas Re-Examines the School Finance System. Part 4. Funding Schools is a Shared Responsibility: Finding a Balance between State and Local Funding Sources. Center for Public Policy Priorities.
Villanueva, C. (2018). What Is Recapture? Why Is It a Critical Part of Public Education in Texas?. Center for Public Policy Priorities.
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