EDUCATION School districts struggle with state funding due to COVID-19’s effect on daily attendance rates
FUNDING EDUCATION IN TEXAS
Texas is one of six states that funds schools based on attendance rates, alongside California, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi and Missouri. Texas schools receive per-student funding under the basic allotment. This is based on average daily attendance, or the number of students in attendance on average. Nearly 433,000 students were uncounted during the 2020-21 school year, or about 8% of all Texas students. Nearly 300,000 students were uncounted during the 2021-22 school year. Schools earn $6,160 per student. If adjusted for inflation, the basic allotment could be at least $7,100 . Texas is behind the national average for student funding by over $4,000 .
BY HANNAH NORTON
Every Texan. Roughly 433,000 were uncounted during the 2020-21 school year, or about 8% of all students in Texas. The basic allotment also is not adjusted for inflation. With inflationary adjustments, the basic allotment should reach at least $7,100, according to Raise Your Hand Texas, a public policy organization focused on public education. School districts also receive funding from local property tax rates. Bob Popinski, the senior director of policy for RYHT, said lawmakers need to continue to invest in public schools, even when property taxes increase. Last biennium, the state saved about $5 billion due to property tax hikes. Popinski said that money was used to fund other programs across Texas. “A big chunk of it did not go back into public education,” Popinski said. “[And] our contention is that any kind of savings to the state due to local [property] value increases needs to be pumped back into public education through increases in the basic allotment or funding for other public education programs.” During the first year of the pandemic, the TEA funded schools based on attendance and enrollment estimates made before the pandemic. As districts began to shift to more in-person instruction during the 2021-22 school year, officials issued an opera- tional minutes adjustment, which excluded periods with low attendance rates from districts’ averages. However, the adjustment was only in effect for the first two-thirds of the school year. During the latter portion of the year, average daily attendance rates were calculated normally. The TEA reported that schools were not held harmless for enrollment declines last school year. After the operational minutes adjustment ended, Pflugerville ISD’s attendance rates hovered around 92%. The district missed out on approximately $1 million during the last 12 weeks of the 2021-22 school year, Land said.
Pflugerville ISD lost roughly $1 million during the last 12 weeks of the 2021-22 school year, officials said. The district serves about 25,000 students, but due to gaps in attendance, it only received funding for 23,000 students, Pflugerville ISD chief communi- cations officer Tamra Spence said. These gaps were primarily fueled by COVID-19 cases and students who participated in classes remotely. Because Texas public schools are financed based on attendance rates, many districts across the state faced similar issues. Schools receive per-student funding under the basic allotment. This is based on average daily attendance, or the number of students in attendance on average. Average daily attendance is calculated by finding the sum of attendance counts throughout the school year and dividing that by the number of days that schools are required to be open, according to the Texas Education Agency. Schools then earn $6,160 per student who meets the average daily attendance threshold. If a student is absent, they are not counted for the day. If a student is frequently absent, they are not counted at all, in terms of funding, according to the TEA. But day-to-day school operations do not change when students are absent, officials said. “We don’t pay teachers based on the number of kids or percentage of kids who come to school for a day; teachers don’t prepare lessons assuming that only 92% of the kids are going to be there,” said Jennifer Land, Pflugerville ISD’s chief financial officer. “We still have to prepare and fund and act as though we’re going to have 100% of our students at school every day.” Land also serves as the board president for the Texas Association of School Business Officials, a nonprofit organization that supports public school officials. Nearly 300,000 students were uncounted during the 2021-22 school year, according to policy nonprofit
SOURCES: EDUCATION WEEK, EVERY TEXAN, RAISE YOUR HAND TEXAS/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Attendance rates are now around 94%, a 4 percentage-point decrease from prepandemic levels. Land said she thinks this is the new normal, because parents and administrators are more aware of viral illnesses and the importance of increased caution to keep students healthy. Texas is one of just six states that funds schools based on attendance rates, alongside California, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi and Missouri. According to Every Texan, there are four methods commonly used to fund schools based on enroll- ment: average daily membership, single count days, enrollment periods and multiday counts. The most common method, average daily membership, is used in 23 states. Villanueva said it is similar to Texas’ existing funding model. In this case, enrollment is recorded throughout the year and used to determine district-by-district funding. Two bills in favor of enrollment-based fund- ing—Senate Bill 728 and House Bill 1246—were filed during the 87th Texas Legislature, which occurred in 2021. But despite support from bipartisan lawmakers and educators across the state, neither bill received a hearing or reached the chamber floors. The 88th Texas Legislature begins in January.
NATURE-BASED EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
BRAND NEW PRESCHOOL Ages 3 - 6 Bee Creek Road Near Rough Hollow Elementary PRE-ENROLL NOW! WWW.MYTIMEKIDS.COM
19
LAKE TRAVIS - WESTLAKE EDITION • NOVEMBER 2022
Powered by FlippingBook