Property “Wealthy” Districts?

Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code describes “recapture,” the mechanism in state funding formulas that ensures that a district’s property wealth per student does not exceed certain levels, known as equalized wealth levels.

When recapture (or the Robin Hood system) began in 1993, 35 school districts were considered property wealthy and required to share their property tax revenue with property poor districts.  The goal was to equalize funding for all Texas districts.

According to TEA, this year (school year 2012-13) 374 districts are considered property weathy and will be required to comply with recapture provisions. 

One of the interesting things about these “wealthy” districts is that more than half of their students are economically disadvantaged.

During the last session, the Texas Legislature cut funding to Texas schools by $5.4 billion for the biennium.    When there are fewer dollars in the system,  more districts must share some of their tax dollars to help support other, poorer districts in the state.