Trib+Edu: Are you optimistic the state will eventually get to a system that holds up for the long term?Ĭlark: I think the Legislature will address the improvement needs that the Supreme Court identifies. So I think the mechanism by which we develop and improve and then go back and revisit may be the best one we can have in our democratic system. Sometimes that’s easier for legislators to do than at other times. And the system is continually in need of refreshing and revision. We want to put together something that works for Texans but will work also in an environment - our state and others - that changes all the time. Are there better ways to resolve the problem than to rely on litigation?Ĭlark: I don’t think there’s a better way to do this if we’re going to have a representative democracy where legislators come from very different parts of a very large state with considerable variation in constituent interests.
And then, a few years later, we’re back in court. Trib+Edu: One thing we’ve seen over and over again is round and round of court challenges that lead to a ruling telling the Legislature to fix the system.
So, in addition to simply having information about where the dollars flow, Texas and other states have information about what those dollars are accomplishing with respect to student performance. This has largely arisen since the early 2000s when the No Child Left Behind Act was implemented and states other than Texas were pushed into the system of having a statewide test and a lot of test data, which reflects how well the students are doing in the system that state devises. Something new that has come into the equation in Texas and in other states is the new data available on student performance. Trib+Edu: Are we seeing the same basic conflict over and over again with these court challenges? Or is the conflict changing with each iteration?Ĭlark: With respect to just the finance numbers and property tax considerations, we are seeing some of the same issues come up over and over again. Only Hawaii has a single school system, and other states have experienced litigation as well on topics that would be familiar to Texans.
This is a situation that is present in nearly every state. Trib+Edu: Why has it proven to be so difficult to create a constitutional system to fund public schools in Texas?Ĭatherine Clark: I think it’s difficult to find a constitutional system to distribute resources to schools because of the nature of the partnership between school districts and the state.
0 kommentar(er)
