School Finance Advocacy Team (SFAT)

Purpose and Scope

Fall 2024

Official Designation: 2024 SBISD School Finance Advocacy Team (SFAT)

Background Information:

The Texas State constitution requires, “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”

The state’s public education funding model has put pressure on the Spring Branch ISD budget for more than 20 years. Despite several lawsuits and resulting action/modifications to the funding model by the legislature over time, the impact of the state’s model continues to have an outsized negative impact on Spring Branch ISD, and our bottom line.

There was a major focus on public school finance when the 86th Texas Legislature met in 2019. Through House Bill 3, legislators made investments in public education while also providing property-tax relief. The Legislature invested $6.4 billion in new state funding for public education. This infusion of state revenue helped to restore some of the state-local balance in Texas public education funding. While House Bill 3 was helpful in the short term, over the subsequent four years, there had not been any infusion of new state funding for public education, despite inflation of over 19 percent.

Knowing that advocacy to secure additional funds for public education would be SBISD’s primary legislative priority heading into the 88th Legislative Session, the SFAT was formed in Fall 2022. The purpose of the SFAT was to educate and engage our community about the state’s public school finance model, its implications for SBISD’s bottom line, and to ensure our elected officials understood and addressed the needs of our district, especially considering the state’s $33 billion budget surplus at that time.

Members of the SFAT, together with our community and our Trustees, were loud and proud advocates for SBISD and for public school funding throughout the 88th Legislative Session and four special sessions that followed throughout the Spring and Fall of 2023. (Learn more about the work of the SFAT here.)

However, despite $4 billion allocated for public schools in the state budget, no legislation was passed to appropriate these funds to the 1200+ Texas public school districts, including SBISD. At the same time, legislation was passed that included unfunded mandates, for example, those addressing safety and security. A key sticking point throughout the session was Governor Abbott’s insistence there be no new funding for public education without concurrent funding for vouchers.

Throughout the 88th Legislative Session, the district shared information with our community and our legislators about the implications for SBISD should there be no new funding for public education. Unfortunately, the consequence of no new funding led to the difficult decisions made last school year to address the district’s $35 million budget gap. (Learn more here.) Even with this level of budget reductions, the district’s FY2025 budget projects an $18 million use of fund balance.

With the 89th Texas Legislative Session set to begin on January 14, 2025, the SFAT is once again being convened with the same purpose as originally designated in 2022.

Spring Branch ISD and public school districts serving a collective 5.5 million students statewide, cannot sustain two additional years with no new funding. The voices of our community as advocates for our students, schools and district will be more critical than ever to ensure SBISD remains the destination of choice for families and educators. This great need for an infusion of funding is confirmed in a recent Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research report. This report affirms SBISD is among the most severely underfunded districts in Texas. (Read report here.)

A note on Recapture: Over the past many legislative sessions, a primary concern of SBISD and our stakeholders has been “Recapture” also known in the past as Robinhood, and currently referred to as “Revenue in Excess of Entitlement.” Under this scheme, the State removes local property tax dollars from public school districts deemed to have too much local tax revenue, based on the funding formulas. Legislators then use these dollars to help balance the rest of the state budget.

Despite changes in the formulas under the 86th Legislative Session’s House Bill 3, that reduced SBISD’s recapture payment, the district sent $80 million back to the state for FY2023. During the 88th Legislative Session, where recaptured funds from approximately 150 school districts comprised nearly $10 billion of the state’s $33 billion budget surplus, recapture was identified by SFAT members as a primary concern. However, legislation was passed, and subsequently ratified by voters in November 2023, wherein the state bought down public school district tax rates and raised the local optional homestead exemption. These actions have significantly reduced SBISD’s recapture payment. SBISD’s projected FY24 Recapture payment is estimated to be $8.7 million. The SBISD Board of Trustees passed a Recapture Resolution (add link) on August 26, 2024.

Eliminating recapture can no longer be a primary goal of the SBISD community’s advocacy. The goal needs to be to fairly and equitably fund public education.

Overview

The SBISD School Finance Advocacy Team (SFAT) is an ad hoc study group comprised of parents, students, business leaders, partners and community members from the district’s various geographic areas and business communities. As such, the committee is constituted for a defined purpose and time and holds no statutory authority.

Purpose and Scope

The SFAT members will work collaboratively and cooperatively with the Superintendent and the superintendent’s administrative designees and resource personnel for the three-fold purpose, as follows:

1. Develop a cadre of parents and community members who are informed about Spring Branch ISD’s historical, current and future financial position, that may include, but not be limited to, the areas noted below: • SBISD financials and historical perspectives

• The state funding model for public education, generally, and recapture, specifically
• SBISD revenue sources, limitations and opportunities
• Legislative impacts
• Competitive position

2. Develop team members as key communicators to increase community awareness and understanding of SBISD’s financial picture resulting from the State funding model for public education.

3. Develop team members’ capacity and willingness to serve as advocates for SBISD regarding the public-school funding model in general, and the need for additional funding for SBISD and all public schools, during the upcoming 89th Texas Legislative Session.

The SFAT should begin its work no later than October 2024 and conclude its meetings by December 2024. Members are expected to attend school-finance-focused community meetings in early 2025 and to advocate on behalf of Spring Branch ISD in January-May 2025 before and during the 89th Legislative Session. Members also are expected to serve as key communicators, including activating their spheres of influence and leveraging social media to expand awareness of the implications of the State school-finance model on SBISD to increase community action on behalf of the district.

Limitations:

The SFAT will focus on educating and engaging its members as described in the three-fold purpose statement above and is not charged with making specific budget recommendations. Additional areas of focus from which the SFAT should refrain include recommendations regarding boundaries of district facilities, closure of district facilities, instructional arrangements and/or educational pedagogy and district policy.

Study Group Composition

The SFAT will be comprised of parents, students, business leaders, partners and community members who are representative of the SBISD community and who have deep regard for Spring Branch ISD and an interest in public school finance, advocacy and/or legislative policy. Members of the SBISD Board of Trustees may each nominate a total of two (2) parents and/or community members. Additionally, campus and SBISD Council of PTAs Advocacy Chairs and/or PTA Presidents will be invited as will representatives from the district’s Title I PAC.

SFAT members will not receive pay, allowances, or benefits for their service as members of the Advisory Team. Parents, students, community, and business leaders that elect to serve will do so voluntarily.

District Commitments to the Advisory Team

In support of the Advisory Team, SBISD commits to:

• provide all associated materials in a timely manner,
• provide committee members with multiple opportunities to provide insight and feedback, and
• provide committee members with transparent two-way communication as questions or needs arise.

SFAT Purpose and Scope

Committee roster

#fullyfundSBISD