One of the CFiSD board members posted this on social media.
Weekly Update: Post 1 of 2
Before I do my weekly post spotlighting great things happening around the district, I want to share some information about the district's current financial situation. As so many parents have become aware of, our school district like districts across the state has been underfunded by the state legislature, especially in areas of school safety, special education, teacher pay, and transportation.
Did you know that CFISD is in the bottom 10 out of 1200 school districts in terms of state funding? That's not bottom 10%....the bottom 10. Why? It's due to a part of the Texas school finance system that negatively impacts school districts that give a Local Optional Homestead Exemption (LOHE). In our case, CFISD provides an additional 20% reduction in your property value so that you pay less property taxes. This property tax relief for taxpayers is not rewarded by the state but is instead penalized.
Look at the graphic below. See the glass? The size of the glass is determined by the state it is our "entitlement". This is how much the state thinks we should have to run our school district (salaries, academics, athletics, fine arts, CTE, gas, electricity, insurance, etc). We do not have control over the size of the glass.
For CFISD, our glass is filled by about 45.8% from local property tax collections and 1.6% from federal funding. The state then makes up the difference to fill the glass through state funding which accounts for about 52.6%.
Here's the challenge. The CFISD funding glass is never filled.
The state finance system does not recognize the millions of property tax dollars not collected due to our LOHE. The state school finance system assumes we collected those tax dollars so when they allocate the state funding to fill the glass, they short pay us.
Last year, that amount was $62M for just one year.
So, why doesn't the CFISD board just get rid of the LOHE? The state legislature changed the law so that the LOHE cannot be reduced or eliminated until at least 2028.
So, why doesn't the state legislature change the law so that districts like CFISD are not penalized for offering a LOHE? Good question. Before I was on the board, I was a member of a local advocacy group that advocated for this change for many years. I have continued advocating for this change in state law, including during a visit to the state capitol along with other members of the CFISD board in April 2023.
Are there any other solutions? Yes. According to state law, the Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency can declare a surplus and thereby reimburse CFISD for of the loss in state funds due to our LOHE.
That would be about $31M for this school year.
This was discussed during the board meeting on Feb 12 (the video is archived on the district website). On March 14, I wrote emails to our elected state representatives asking them to encourage the TEA Commissioner to declare his surplus and reimburse CFISD for the lost funding, especially considering financial challenges for the upcoming school year. Our state Representatives collaborated to send a joint letter to the TEA Commissioner on May 6 asking him to reimburse the funding to CFISD. No action has been taken by the Commissioner to date. The deadline is August 31. When that deadline passes, the funds will just be put back into the large, multi-BILLION surplus at the state level.
I'm sorry this is so long. As many are finding out, school finance in Texas is very complicated.
