Introduction
The Texas legislature will have a budget with a surplus. There is a debate if some of the money should be used for educational purposes. Do increased budgets mean higher academic achievement? Are other factors more relevant for increased student success than money?
Body
The portion of the Texas budget known as the general revenue is $101.4 billion this year. That represents a surplus which is being seen as having two possible uses. Governor Rick Perry would like to use that surplus to reduce the tax burden faced by Texans. Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, would like to restore the $5.4 million dollars that had been cut from public school budgets.
Additional research does not align that a higher expenditure per student equate better reading scores, better math literacy, or a better likelihood that a student will graduate from high school. Tracing results from 1970-2004, in an article by Lips, Watkins, & Fleming (2008), it was noted that even though the expenditures per student were drastically increased during the 34 year period, scores remained relatively flat as did graduation rates. When comparing districts by how much was spend per pupil, there was no consistency in the districts that spent twice as much as others. Some of the districts that outspent districts by twice as much saw results that were not as promising as the districts that spent half as much when reviewing graduation rates and reading and math proficiency scores. This study advocates that money alone is not the solution to a better education for students .
The keywords for this article are expenditure per student, academic achievement, public education, public schools, and resource allocation.
Although replacing some of the money that had been taken from the educational budget might be in order, other areas also should be addressed to help Texas’ schools improve. Some of these areas would be investing in programs to help teachers be more effective in the classroom and expanding bilingual education programs.
As stated by Snell, (2009), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as the President Obama’s stimulus bill, allocated $115 billion for education for the elementary and secondary grades. This is in addition to the $60 billion spent annually for education nationally. As such, it is the largest investment of funds to education in history. Most of these funds will serve as a block grant to cover operational costs that the districts have been struggling to cover. Unfortunately, the grant is unlikely to boost student achievement (Snell, 2009).
The key words for this article are investment, block grant, stimulus, operational costs.
Conclusion
The debate over whether or not increasing educational budgets will help student performance has been at the forefront of education for decades. Money alone is not the answer. How the money is used is important. Teacher training, reduction in class size, and wise choices in resources are three of the best allocations for financial resources in educational spending. In a nation where most people are hurting financially and no one wants their taxes raised, districts will continue to try to do more with less. A budget surplus or shortfall is just an interpretation and political jargon. What matters is what funds actually reach the districts.
Annotated Bibliography
Lips, D. W. (2008). Does spending more on education imrove academic achievement? Backgrounder, 2179-2199.
In this article, there is a study conducted from 1970-2004 about academic achievement in the United States. Despite a nearly three-fold increase in per student expenditure during the time period, reading and math proficiency rates and high school graduation rates remain relatively flat. When comparing districts that spend twice as much per student as others, there is no correlation as to proficiency and graduation rates when compared to student expenditures.
Snell, L. (2009). Over stimulating K-12. Reason, 41, 14-15. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/203362237?accountid=35812
The money received from the stimulus package in 2009 will not be used to increase proficiency for students. Rather, school districts will be using the money to close the gaps and shortcomings in their budgets for their routine expenses.
Tomlinson, C. (Jan. 20, 2013). Battle lines drawn, Texas budget debate begins. San Antonio Express-News.
There is a theoretical surplus in the Texas state budget. The Republican Governor, Rick Perry, would like to return the money to the people through tax cuts. Others, such as Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, would like to return some of the $5.4 million in funds that had been cut from public school budgets.
