April 11, 2018      2:06 PM

Grusendorf: "We need more money," the dilemma of school finance

Former House Public Ed Chair Grusendorf says there are no easy answers to funding the current school system and that it has “been structured to meet the needs of adults at the expense of students. That is not surprising since adults vote, and students do not.”

Listening to recent testimony before the new Commission on Public School Finance you were assured of hearing one common theme –“ We Need More Money.”  Virtually every education interest group testified to the fact.

However, no one could tell the Commission how much money is enough. 

This is not new. In fact, if you were around in in 1984 when HB 72 (the bill by which Texas moved from the Personnel Unit system to the current weighted-student funding system) was passed into law, you would have heard the same common theme: “We need more money.” 

The truth is, you can go back even further.

Former Rep. Kent Grusendorf, a Republican from Arlington, was a Chairman of the Texas House Education Committee, worked on “school choice” issues at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and was most recently a contributor to the New Leadership PAC, which sought to unseat incumbent GOP members of the Texas House.

His full column can be found in the R&D Department.

By Kent Grusendorf

Copyright April 11, 2018, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved