Amid growing ‘Robin Hood’ payments, property-rich Texas schools want state relief

Texas officials expect a surplus of funds though the state continues to draw back more money from districts -- including Dallas, Plano and Highland Park -- under the growing Robin Hood school finance system. Local school districts who pay into the system, formally known as recapture, say their swelling bills could impact how their schools operate as inflation rises and they juggle costly needs like security and technology upgrades, as well as the high price of catching students up amid an ongoing pandemic. The Texas comptroller earlier this month celebrated new estimates showing a $27 billion surplus. At the same time, officials project that so-called property rich districts could send $3.3 billion back to the state to be redistributed to poorer schools. Each summer, the Texas Education Agency alerts local districts that they may be expected to pay into recapture, a signature of the state’s model for funding schools.

Roughly 175 districts – more than one in 10 public school districts across the state – are projected to make some level of contribution, ranging from hundreds of millions to a few thousand. Texas’ reliance on recapture has ballooned since it was established in 1993 in response to lawsuits that illuminated the deep inequities baked into state funding. A public education funding model tied to local property taxes meant students in poorer parts of the state didn’t have schools like families in wealthy areas. Disparities were apparent in the shape of buildings where children learned, in the caliber of curriculum purchased and the quality of teachers hired, said Al Kauffman, who represented poor school districts when they sued the state. “These extremely wealthy districts could outspend everyone else at much lower tax rates,” he said. “The inequities were just incredible.” Decades later, some North Texas districts are now among the largest contributors to Robin Hood, though a significant portion of their students come from low-income families.