Week Three, Assignment Four

Two areas make up the majority of the financial sources for a district within their M&O operations fund.  Local property taxes and general revenue funds from the state make up the majority of the funding to a school district for the M&O. The idea of WADA is to help balance the difference in districts such as these two however it just does not seem to work here. Of course this is the reality and regardless of the balancing act the state attempts, many districts that count on that extra money just do not see it in their M&O. We see on a day to day basis that the M&O is driven more by your local revenue than the programs that the state has to offer. Even though District’s like ours do have some assistance through their Economically Disadvantaged numbers, it can not match the local revenue available to some other districts in their M&O thus causing an inequity for the programs offered by each. The push for equity for each program is illustrated by the amount of money each receive for the programs that fall under M&O from the state. This type of funding goes to where the programs are limited in those areas at each district. This does enable each district to enhance those programs however some districts may have additional resources to add to each program where others may have only the state funding for theirs because of their local revenue.

Using our district as an example, the allocation funds provided by the State of Texas assists us in many ways and are the life blood of us providing the extra help need based on our student population.  Although that funding is essential to our existence, it can not  compare to that of property rich school districts that have the extra resources that supplement the state allotment.  An example would be where we do receive money for teachers in Title areas; however their salary must be comparative with the remainder of the staff.  If we were in a property rich district, we would be able to offer more in our teacher salary scale thus possibly attracting more applicants for that same position.  The inequity follows us in many different ways and not just in the allotment of funds.