Patrick Rose

Advocates say smaller districts have higher operating costs.
 

AUSTIN–Wimberley residents and students rode more than 40 miles north to the Capitol on Thursday to urge state lawmakers to change the school finance system in a way that would benefit Wimberley and other midsize school districts.

Joined by state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, the group urged the House Select Committee on Higher and Public Education Finance to recommend that in their next session, lawmakers authorize extra funding for districts with 1,600 to 5,000 students and that are considered property-rich, a category that includes Wimberley. The group assembled in front of a giant fake check for $39.5 million, the amount it would take to fund such payments to all 37 such midsize school districts in the state.

Last year, trustees for the 1,940-student Wimberley district said they would withhold money owed the state under school finance laws that make districts with higher property values relative to student enrollment share with poorer districts.

The school board eventually backed down under the threat that the state would consolidate Wimberley with a neighboring Hays County district.

Rose, members of Wimberley-based political action committee Texans for School Finance Reform, the Texas Association of School Boards, the Texas Association of School Administrators and other groups were among those asking the state for more money in the 2008-09 school year.

Rose and the other advocates contend that smaller districts, including those considered property-rich, have higher operating costs than larger districts and need additional state funding in order to serve their students well.

The state already gives such funding to property-poor districts with enrollments between 1,600 and 5,000 as well as all districts, regardless of wealth, with fewer than 1,600 students.