Morning Shots

NOTE: This is the last in a series of posts responding to thoughts made by Eduwonk with respect to Florida’s McKay Scholarship Program for special needs children.  Earlier articles by Ladner may be found here, here and here.  -ed.

So, it is 4th and five from the 8-yard line with only seconds to go in the McKay debate. Both teams are exhausted from battling it out for four quarters. Eduwonk has a 6-point lead, but Ladner has the ball. Ladner makes a few last points before the whistle blows:

-Eduwonk’s claims that severe disability kids should be over-represented in McKay, but private schools specializing in high-end disabilities have their cost structures determined by the law-suit/outsourcing system of the status-quo (i.e. they may be built around $100k per year, while the McKay offers only a maximum of $21k per year or so). Given that children with severe disabilities are being served by McKay, just not over-served, this seems like a small problem rather than a horrible flaw.

-Eduwonk cites the special education meltdown in Washington D.C. as some sort of cautionary tale for McKay. I don’t get it. With 2,283 students costing the DCPS $118 million per year, the average tuition scored through the status-quo lawsuit system is a mind-boggling $51,000 per year. In the meantime, the entire state of Florida spent about $97,000,000 to give 15,910 students McKay Scholarships. In other words, Florida gave choice to about seven times as many students while spending 18% less. This doesn’t take into account all the litigation costs that DCPS must be enduring. Far from a cautionary tale against McKay, this is something DCPS should implement pronto to protect their budget from the deadly combination of rent-seeking

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At the same time Texas Governor Rick Perry is circulating ads promoting property tax cuts (“Homeowners and businesses will save $15.7 billion on school property taxes”) achieved during the 79th Legislature’s third special session, called specifically to solve problems with constitutionality and funding in paying for Texas public schools, just emerging is that the special session actually created a $6.1 billion shortfall* for which there is no fix save an unrealistic forecast of an unprecedented ten-year cycle of boom–or the more realistic and plebian fixes, trimming government spending and increasing sales taxes.

Because Texas has no state income tax, schools are funded far less by the state (the Texas Permanent School Fund’s disbursements are currently at $765 million) and much more by local property taxes ($18.6 billion). Under 1993′s Robin Hood, many districts are approaching the $1.50 M&O and $0.50 I&S cap per $100 valuation, which scheme the Texas Supremes found unconstitutional as it amounted to an illegal state property tax, and gave the Legislature a June 1, 2006 deadline to find a cure; hence this last special session.

So the Lege has just passed a series of bills which will lower the maximum property tax to $1.00 in two years for districts already at $1.50 M&O, and make up the difference with a revised business franchise tax meant to close the business-friendly Delaware Sub loophole, with an additional $1.00 cigarette tax along with a new used car tax, all projected to yield a $4.2 billion revenue stream by fiscal year 2009.

But at the same time, Lege appropriations are projected at $10.3 billion by FY 2009 and include a $2.4 billion across-the-board teacher pay increase over the next three years, $600 million in teacher awards, and $275 per high schooler for reducing dropout rates and college prep.