SCHOOL FINANCE
Austin ISD is expecting to pay a record amount, almost $846 million, in local property tax revenue to the state through a process known as recapture for the 2022-23 school year—a more than 350% increase in recapture payments since 2015. As AISD faces nancial hurdles, district o cials and school nance advocates will be pushing to reform a system that they say is inequitable in the 2023 Texas legislative cycle. “We are at a breaking point,” AISD Chief Financial O cer Eduardo Ramos said. How did AISD get here? In 1993, the Texas Legislature implemented recap- ture following a series of court rulings addressing inequalities in school funding. The state determines a district’s entitlement—how much it should cost to educate a student—through a complex set of for- mulas, said Amanda Brownson, associate executive director of policy research for the Texas Association of School Business O cials. Any revenue over the district’s entitlement is sent to the state to be redistributed to poor districts. Austin ISD pushes for recapture reform BY CHLOE YOUNG
Raising the rate The data below compares the amount of recapture Austin ISD paid with two of the largest districts in the state as well as neighboring ISDs for the 2021-22 school year.
In 2021, AISD paid roughly $700 million, more than the next top ve recapture-paying districts combined. The primary factors determining how much rev- enue the district is entitled to is the number of stu- dents enrolled and daily attendance, Brownson said. While property values are increasing in Travis County, bringing the district more revenue, the dis- trict’s decreasing enrollment means those gains are going to the state. Enrollment has dropped by almost 10,000 students since 2015, according to AISD. “Last year, we lost 269 students, which is minimal for our district, but because our property values are growing at 18% it just skyrocketed the amount of recapture that we have to pay,” Ramos said. What does this mean for AISD? AISD is projecting to pay over $1 billion in recap- ture for the 2025-26 school year, Ramos said at a meeting March 25 with city and county leaders. Ramos said the district will go bankrupt in the next three to four years if it continues to spend as it has. On June 23, the board adopted a $1.68 billion budget for scal year 2022-23, with over half going toward recapture. The district cut 600 employees for 2022-23 and reduced department budgets by 10%, Ramos said. “We’re at a point where we have to reduce our expenditures through sta ng in order to be able to make our recapture payment,” Ramos said.
Houston ISD 194,852
Dallas ISD 143,665
Eanes ISD 7,770
Dripping Springs ISD 8,539
Austin ISD 74,713
NUMBER OF STUDENTS
SOURCE: TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Austin High School teacher Miranda Grabowski said she has felt the weight of those e ects. She said the school’s science department received no funding for its budget from the district in the 2021-22 year. “We’re essentially having to either pay out of our own pocket for things our students are going to need or ask parents for donations,” Grabowski said. What can the district do? In 2019, the Legislature passed House Bill 3, which reduced the recapture rate to a degree, but Ramos
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