MALC CHAIRMAN TREY MARTINEZ FISCHER FILES RESOLUTION TO MOVE FORWARD ON RESTORING EDUCATION CUTS AND SCHOOL FINANCE REFORM

Friends, below is information released by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus relating to the issue of taking up school finance.

As noted in the MALC's press release:

Today, Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) Chairman Trey Martinez Fischer filed H.R. 408 to move the conversation on public school funding forward in the Texas House and discuss how to restore $5.4 billion in public education cuts.
“We have $8.8 billion of general revenue available to spend in fiscal year 2013. Some of these funds should be used to immediately begin restoring $5.4 billion in public education cuts. In light of a recent district court decision finding that Texas’ school finance system is broken and inadequate, we must act now to help our schools,” said Chairman Trey Martinez Fischer. “The only thing political about having to restore funding to education is why we had an inaccurate revenue estimate by the comptroller in 2011, which forced Republicans to cut much more than necessary.” 

Last Thursday, February 7, 2013, Chairman Martinez Fischer laid out a path for the Texas House to act now to begin restoring education funding cuts for the current budget cycle and move forward to fix Texas’ broken school finance system.
On Monday, February 4, 2013, Travis County District Judge John Dietz ruled that Texas’ school finance system is unconstitutional. Judge Dietz found that the system was inequitable, inadequate, lacked meaningful discretion for school districts to set tax rates, and was unsuitable for low income and English Language Learners.