Our school is funded by two major sources: our parent’s property tax dollars and funds from the state of Texas.

This month the Texas Supreme Court said that the current system that the state uses to fund schools meets the minimum standard and is thus constitutional. However, the 600 school districts, including Austin ISD, that sued the state to fix what they call a broken system, do not believe that this system adequately funds public education in Texas.

More than one-third of our parents tax dollars are being sent back to the state to be redistributed to other so-called “property poor” school districts. It’s part of the state’s “Robin Hood” school financing system, which is supposed to give schools an equal level of funding throughout the state.

For this past school year, the state took approximately $273 million and it is expected that next year, the district will send  $406 million to the state. That’s about 38 percent of our tax money that isn’t going to our district.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that the system is constitutional, the Legislature needs to take action and let AISD keep its tax money and help struggling schools within the district.