Over the last two months, several Texas school districts have discussed putting an end to sending recapture payments, or “Robin Hood money” to the state. Two districts – Keller ISD near Fort Worth, and Spring Branch ISD near Houston – have even voted not to send the money next year.
The districts said they want more transparency from the state following a legislative session in which Texas had a record budget surplus of nearly $33 billion.
"Those recapture payments are just happening at the wrong time and in the wrong moment right now for some boards," SMU clinical professor in education policy and law Watt Lesley Black said. "They’re obviously frustrated because the legislature didn’t do anything to help school districts financially. They didn’t make any tweaks to funding, they haven’t raised the basic allotment since before the pandemic, despite the record-setting inflation we’ve had over the last several years."
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Robin Hood started in the early 1980s to help districts in parts of the state that don’t receive as much money in local property taxes as those in more densely populated areas.
"The school finance formula is complicated, but it essentially guarantees a certain entitlement for school districts," Texas Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) said. "How much money are they owed for the work of educating our kids?"
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