2022 EDUCATION EDITION
WHAT IS RECAPTURE? Recapture was enacted by the Texas Legislature in 1993 to equalize wealth levels among school districts. Under Chapter 49 of the state education code, a district that brings in more local revenue than it is entitled to is considered property-wealthy and must pay its excess local revenue to the state to be distributed to property-poor districts.
said the e ects were temporary and lessened by growing in ation and Austin’s high cost of living. In the 2023 legislative session, Ramos said the dis- trict will advocate for increased per student funding, cost-of-living and in ation adjustments, and a dis- count for paying recapture early or on time. “We’re not saying that we don’t believe in the recapture system—we do—but we just want to pay our fair share, and right now, the system is not fair,” Ramos said. Christy Rome, executive director of the Texas School Coalition, which advises districts about recapture and advocates for reform, said the for- mula to determine what it costs to educate students is awed because it does not account for di erent costs of living. “Austin ISD is having to pay their employees to live in a community with a very high cost of living,” Rome said. Her organization will also ask the Legislature to increase the basic allotment of funding per student, account for di erences in cost of living and provide a discount for paying recapture early. Rome and Mayor Pro Tem Alison Alter, who runs a school nance advocacy group called Just Fund it TX, said their organizations will also advocate for more transparency as there has been some concern about how recaptured dollars are used. “It’s di cult to prove that any recapture funds are actually going to the property-poor districts,” said Jason Stanford, AISD chief o cer of communications and community engagement, in an April 6 release. Rome said recaptured dollars go into the Founda- tion School Program to fund property-poor districts. The state is receiving more in recapture than it antic- ipates each year and increasingly using recapture to fund public education instead of its own general revenue. Alter said Just Fund it TX will advocate for the Legislature to put some of its $27 billion surplus toward public education, as Texas ranked 41st in the nation for school nance in a study from Education Week in 2021. “Increasing state funding for schools and updat- ing the recapture formulas is probably the single most important thing we could do for a ordability and equity in our city,” Alter said.
Below is the baseline function for recapture, but the rate is adjusted based on factors such as school size and number of low-income campuses. Basic allotment ($6,160) Average daily attendance X =
Entitlement—how much the district can keep
Instruction
AUSTIN’S TAX DOLLARS
Facilities, security & data processing Student support
To state recapture
Austin ISD
$835.28M
Just over half of every tax dollar paid to Austin ISD is projected to go recapture in 2022-23.
Campus admin Central admin Other
Available for Austin ISD:
Revenue: $1.68B
ENROLLMENT VS. RECAPTURE
As enrollment decreases and property values rise, the district’s recapture payment grows.
Enrollment
Recapture
90,000
$1B
83,270
81,346 80,911
367.04% increase
$800M
80,000
74,713
84,191
82,766
79,787
$600M
70,000
74,982
74,819
$400M
60,000 0 //
$200M
-11.26% decrease
0
SOURCES: AUSTIN ISD, TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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