The new Tiger Stadium is an impressive upgrade for our school district. At the open house and ribbon cutting, we all go to marvel and talk about what a boost this was from the days we were in school and for our town.
Rockdale Independent School District has faced many challenges as our local economy has changed. It has gone from a “property rich” district which sent millions of dollars to the state each year to one where we send just a nominal amount.
We are hopeful that in the upcoming legislative session, some of the policies that led to a broken school finance system may get changed and the “Robin Hood” way of paying for public schools may see positive changes for all districts.
Since the state legislature has continually cut its share of funding public education, local districts have had to dip into reserves, forego raises and cut staff in order to meet the challenges.
Rockdale’s situation has been even more difficult as the “wealth” on our books – the Alcoa plant and power facilities – has disappeared. Some low-hanging fruit to address the “Robin Hood” system of school finance includes:
• Letting Chapter 41 (“rich”) districts retain revenue per weighted average daily attendance up to the state average before recapture payments are required. When RISD sees more business investment, we may once again get lumped in with “rich” districts and have to remit funds back to the state;
• Updating the cost of living index to reflect the true cost in this area (which hasn’t been done since 1989).
And there are a few other proposals which might help. I’d also like to see legislators reverse course on the constant downward support from the state to school districts (from funding 50-plus percent to now about 38 percent).
Local taxpayers have picked up the tab for the state’s lessening share, yet taxpayers somehow manage to blame local governments and state law-makers get a pass.
Public education is the foundation of our future workforce and economy and should be prioritized as such.
—kecRISD has 68 percent of its students classified as “economically disadvantaged,” or those living below the poverty threshold, which is around $31,000 a year for a family of four.
The Texas Education Agency defined 51 percent of RISD students as “at-risk” of dropping out of school. This seems like a high number, but is based on a lot of factors. TEA uses criteria to define this, including students who:
• did not perform satisfactorily on assessment tests;
• are in grade 7 through 12 and did not maintain a 70 average in two or more core subjects;
• were not advanced to the next grade level;
• are pregnant or are parents;
• have been placed in an alternative education program;
• have been on parole, probation or deferred prosecution;
• have dropped out of school previously;
• have limited English proficiency;
• are in the custody or care of the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services;
• are homeless; or
• reside in a residential placement facility, including a detention facility, substance abuse treatment facility, emergency shelter, psychiatric hospital, halfway house or foster group home.
There are a lot of factors our educators must deal with among our student population. We should do everything we can to stop students from dropping out of the education system.
RISD does a tremendous job to support students by offering more CTE (Career Technical Education) courses and training our youth for college, vocational college and the job market.
These reach 100 or more students in each grade of high school.
RISD recently added its health science lab, listening to market needs and responding with great training opportunities in that field.
The district also offers CTE courses in animal science, floral design, ag mechanics and welding, business management, construction, graphic design, computer hardware and even video game design, to name a few. RISD has done all of this even as it has struggled with less state funding and declining industrial property values.
So, let’s ask our legislators to support our public schools — which educate 92 percent of children — and continue to build on these local initiatives.
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