| Summary: | The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Texas House Bill 72 on equalization of finances in the public school districts of Texas. House Bill 72 is a finance reform bill which was passed by the Texas Legislature during the Summer of 1984. This study involves basically three steps. First, current criteria for equity as defined by school finance "experts" and recent definitive court decisions were determined. Second, financial data from the Texas Education Agency were statistically analyzed for the 1984-1985 school year. Third, the statistical analysis was used to determine if the current Texas school finance plan meets the current criteria for equity. The population used in the study was 1,068 school districts. Based on the findings of this study the following conclusions were drawn. 1. The use of a per capita flat grant by the Texas Public School Finance System contributes to the unequalizing of financial resources available to school districts. 2. School districts with greater property index values are required to exercise very little effort toward the support of their public schools. 3. School districts with high property index values tend to have lower effective tax rates and high per-pupil expenditures. 4. School districts of least wealth exercised substantially more local tax effort in support of educational programs in their schools than more wealthy school districts. 5. School districts with low property index values are almost entirely dependent upon the Foundation School Program monies to provide the educational opportunities available within the school district. 6. The disparities in local tax effort, per-pupil expenditures, and revenues are attributable primarily to the school district's heavy reliance on local property wealth. 7. A completely perfect system of equalization would be full state funding with monies distributed to districts on an educational needs basis.
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