Houston voters declares their opposition against "Robin Hood"

According to The Austin Chronicle’s article entitled "Houston Voters Say No to 'Robin Hood'", the Houston school district will not send their property tax dollars to the state.

The law is known as “Robin Hood” requires wealthier school districts to fund the poorer school districts.  This law is the result of a court ruling in 1993, which states the poorer school districts have more disadvantages than the wealthier school districts. “Robin Hood” was passed to help equalize the financing of all school districts in Texas. However, it contains a provision called “additional state aid for tax reduction” which allows some districts not to make the required payments. This provision was deleted by the 2015 legislature, and this means about 243 districts will start making payment to the state. Houston is one of those districts, and it is estimated that it will owe approximately $162 million dollars to the state. The HISD trustees felt that the voters needed to approve the amount of money before it is sent to the state. They put it on the ballot during the last election under Proposition 1. This news upset a lot of Houston voters, and it led to the “No” vote by a margin of two-to-one to block the money being sent to the state for the Robin Hood plan.

There are many reasons why many wealthy school districts do not like the Robin Hood plan. One reason is that it creates a financial burden on the property taxpayers. It often results in having taxpayers vote against bond issues which the district proposes. Taxpayers resent that their tax money is sent to the state instead of being used for local schools.  In addition, there is no accountability about how the money is used.

Moreover, the Robin Hood plan’s payment is based on the previous year property tax value. For instance, a district’s property value increases greatly because of oil booming. However, this year the oil is not as successful causing the property value to decrease. Despite the downfall in property value, the district will still have to make a payment based on the previous year’s higher property value. Consequently, the school district may not be able to afford to make the payment.

Another reason is Robin Hood plan generates a huge cut in the school’s budget. For instance, the HISD trustees are concerned that if they are forced to send the payment to the state, they would have to cut down on the number of teachers, counselors, and essential programs in order to meet their budget. Also, there are studies that show that the Robin Hood plan does not improve the education in Texas as it is supposed to. In 2003, ten years after the law was passed, Texas had the lowest percentage of high school graduated in the nation.

People have started to question how the plan helps education in Texas. Houston is the largest school district in the state, and their rebellion against the Robin Hood plan can influence other districts to do the same. This is the first time the voters have rebelled against this law saying that they will not pay. This rebellion can lead to consequences. First, the Texas Education Agency can change the boundaries, and take away some of the wealthy property from the district. They also can force them to consolidate with another district.  Since the HISD is the first district to rebel, people still don’t know what the consequence would be.

I do not like the like the Robin Hood plan. The Texas Legislature should come up with an alternative way to fund Texas Public Education.  However, since the Supreme Court says that this law is not unconstitutional, there is little hope that the Texas Legislature will tackle the problem.