Media Critiques
Texas School Finance Reform--A Media Critique
By Jessica Robertson
Oct 6, 2005, 22:28

School finance reform is an issue that has been plaguing the Texas Legislature for more than a decade. The proposed elimination of revenue sharing among Texas school districts has been drawing criticism from a wide spectrum of news media sources.

The so-called “Robin Hood” law, enacted in 1993, addresses a Texas Supreme Court order to fund more equitably. The law requires that wealthy school districts give to poorer school districts.

Republican legislators and the governor have criticized plans to create a state-wide property tax as a way to increase funding for public schools, while the Texas Legislature has not been able to agree on a plan to redistribute local property taxes after two special sessions during the summer.

So, how has the news media covered this on-going story?

A search for articles from news sources in Texas for the last two years yields more than 500 stories from the Houston Chronicle and 200 stories from the Austin-American Statesman. Even the Texas Observer, a 32-page magazine out of Austin, has four stories.

The Houston Chronicle featured almost daily coverage, including editorials and front-page stories. The Chronicle repeatedly points out the proposed redistribution in local property taxes would have cut taxes for households worth more than $100,000 and increased taxes for families with households under $100,000.

The Austin-American Statesman covered the special summer sessions but did not feature the issue as extensively as the Chronicle over the past two years.

The Texas Observer, a biweekly publication that promises “sharp reporting and commentary from the strangest state in the union,” limited its coverage to editorials.

The Chronicle’s coverage of the Texas Legislature’s school finance reform balances news stories and editorials. In an editorial from Aug. 28, 2005, titled “Perry showed he prefers demagoguery to leadership," the Chronicle’s Austin bureau staff writer, Clay Robison, uses the school funding reform issue to compare Gov. Rick Perry to an emperor with no clothes.

The editorial calls the two special legislative sessions on school finance the governor’s “first two bad ideas of the summer.” Robison also calls Perry’s proposal to limit school districts’ spending to non-classroom expenses a calculated move to help his re-election campaign rather than a workable effort to change policy.

Robison has also written more than 50 news stories about school funding reform. In a story from Aug. 10, 2004, Robison writes that more than 330 school districts, rich and poor, are suing the state. He quotes the plaintiffs’ lawyer, who calls the system a “perfect storm, primed for disaster by an over-dependence on local property taxes.”

The lawyer for the school districts, George W. Bramblett Jr., accuses the Legislature of being unwilling to “appropriate enough money for state-ordered classroom improvements despite a rapidly growing student population.”

The coverage from the Statesman also combines editorials and general news stories, but the news stories have a more liberal slant than those from the Chronicle.

Mark Lisheron leads his news story “School tax plans perish in House,” from July 27, 2005, with a correct prediction that there is “deep doubt about whether lawmakers can approve an education funding overhaul this summer.”

The Observer’s coverage seems to focus on the shortcomings of the state administration. A May 7, 2004, editorial “An ‘F’ for leadership," asserts “It’s clear the main priority for much of the Texas GOP is property tax relief.”

The editorial criticizes the Texas Legislature’s lack of concern for the state’s children. The Observer says the Republican-dominated Legislature slashed $350 million worth of education funding out of the budget during the just-concluded regular session. The editorial calls the Legislature “a lousy steward” who has “declared war on low-income children.”

Two of the state’s most important daily newspapers and an alternative magazine covered the school reform issue extensively over the past two years. The left-leaning Observer agrees with the newspapers in Houston and Austin that the proposed plan for school finance favors the wealthy school districts.

Both mainstream and alternative news sources comment on the Legislature in editorials, condemning its treatment of poor school districts. All three news sources came to the same conclusion with regard to the state’s school funding—the Legislature has failed to make the grade for Texas schoolchildren.

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