On the eve of the 84^th Session of the Texas Legislature public school funding continues to be on the minds of district administrators and trustees as they wrestle through possible program and staff reductions as costs increase. Earlier this week the Joaquin ISD released letter on what they say is the unfair treatment of small schools in Texas for over 30 years. The problem they say is the continued use of a state-funding formula that’s deemed “out-of-date”.

 

The past three-decades a multiplier of .00025 has been used for school districts that were less than 300 square miles in area, this includes all Shelby County school districts. Because of this, there’s been a substantial loss of state funding to districts for years. What the Joaquin ISD and the five other Shelby County public school districts are wanting is for that multiplier to increase to .0004, which would mean over $700,000 in more state money each to Joaquin, Center, Shelbyville, Timpson and Tenaha ISDs, and $141,000 to the Excelsior ISD.

 

At the town hall meeting hosted by State Rep. Chris Paddie Tuesday, Joaquin ISD Board President Jay Dee Cockrell asked the legislator if he would do what he could to get this “out-of-date” formula changed and help local and similar school districts get almost 38 percent more state funding.

 

Rep. Paddie said there are definitely some state education funding formulas out-of-date that are punishing rural school districts.

 

The Joaquin ISD and other Shelby County school districts are encouraging you to call, write or email your elected representatives until the formula is corrected. I’ve posted the letter released by the Joaquin ISD on the CBC website, just look under the local news tab, the contact info for our elected officials is included there.