http://www.themonitor.com/news/business-50022-school-funding.html

"McALLEN — Local business, civic and education leaders seem resigned to the fact that legal action might be the only way to rectify a school funding system that leaves Rio Grande Valley districts with far less money than other, richer districts in Texas."

continued in the above url.

meh. valley mentality never fails to astound me. the reason the other districts have more money is due to a larger tax base. the reason they're more successful is not due to the larger tax base but rather more parental involvement. fact is you have to do the best you can with what you have and not desire what others have and make excuses for your failures. i say they need to stfu and start creating results and stop blaming others for their shortcomings.

our society is now full of victims....that is what we're teaching our kids in school...when we should be teaching them math, science, english, and civics.

Wow! You sound pretty angry there. The state constitution says that education is a STATE responsibility. Why would the state decide to provide more money to some communities than others?

dear rat,

i'm not angry. just tired of our current "i'm a victim" society along with the selfcentered, entitled mentality permeated in the rgv. you're right, the constitution does say, "A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools." the legislature has done their job of looking for ways to finance it and over the decades modified it and in some cases did and in others did not do it well. doesn't change the fact it is what it is. sometimes in life one has to make due.

i'm a product of one of these "poorer" districts....i went to school, did the best i could, went to college, graduated, and am gainfully employed. no excuses. more parental involvement and accountability would go a long way vs crying about money. besides, if these parents are so worried about their kids education why not send them to private school? or would you like ME to pay for that too?

sincerely,

VM

Just to clarify.
The issue is with the amount the state provides (not including local taxes). The fact of the the matter is that the amount is not equitable. As stated in the article the state gives several other districts more money than what the education finance formula says they should recieve. They are held "Without Harm" and are given millions of more dollars than other districts. This is on top of all local tax money raised, which of course in some more affluent areas is much higher than what we see in the valley.

VM

You and I probably agree more than we disagree. I too grew up in a relatively poor district in the valley. I was never in an air conditioned school until my senior year in high school. The problem was we didn't know we were poor. We did with what we had (as you said).

The problem is that we don't live in the world that I grew up in. I have had to realize that that world is gone. Many folks can't afford to go to private schools and we certainly shouldn't expect to have to pay for a private school slot for someone's kid when a public school slot is already paid for and required by law.

As laalaa01 pointed out above, the issue is that different school districts are getting wildly different amounts of money from the state. It is the reason that the legislature is having such a hard time fixing the state finances. They can't understand it and have to have "think tanks" explain it to them.

[This message has been edited by oldvalleyrat (edited 5/6/2011 3:17p).]

this will go nowhere. everyone wants great schools but no one wants to pay for it. getting more money is like trying to fix one leak when in reality there are dozen more that need to be patched too. what needs to be restructured is how the money is parceled out. smarter spending will go farther than a few dollars more.

You are right. Unfortunately sometime ago our representatives Austin became more interested in getting money for their constituency than in looking out for the best result for the entire state. Sad state of affairs to not have any real statesman anymore, but it is what it is.

[This message has been edited by oldvalleyrat (edited 5/8/2011 10:35p).]