School Land Board Witholds $300M Targeted for Public Schools

School Land Board Holds Back $300 Million Legislators Assumed Available for Current Budget:  Under a constitutional amendment approved by Texas voters last November, the legislature authorized the School Land Board to transfer $300 million to plug into the state budget for public education. Lawmakers last June had already built the expected $300 million into their two-year budget for public schools and correspondingly reduced by $300 million the amount of general revenue allocated to public education.

However, apparently nobody made sure the School Land Board would use the new authority as lawmakers wished, and now the School Land Board has balked at making the transfer of funds. As reported in the Texas Tribune, the  Republican author of the constitutional amendment, Rob Orr of Burleson, said: “Everything was put in place to allow that to happen….I believe it needed to happen, so I’m not sure why it didn’t.” But acting to “allow” something to happen doesn’t ensure that it will, and now the legislature is going to have to come up with $300 million in a supplemental budget bill when it meets again in January, unless the School Land Board relents.

So why did the School Land Board do it?  According to the Texas Tribune:   

 The backdrop to the conflict is a perennial tug-of-war between lawmakers and the two state boards that control the $26 billion trust known as the Permanent School Fund. Though the School Land Board manages the fund’s real estate assets, it’s the 15-member State Board of Education that decides, with some guidance from the Constitution, how much of the trust to pay out into the Available School Fund. Because it can free up money in other parts of the budget — for example, what happened with the appropriations bill in special session — lawmakers tend to want as much in the Available School Fund as they can get.

In the meantime, Rep. Rob Eissler, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, said the school land board’s vote was unfortunate.

“Government doesn’t always work the way we want it to,” said Eissler, R-The Woodlands. “Legislative intent doesn't always follow through to the very end.

In spite of the "it's not my fault" attitude of our lawmakers, Rob Orr and Rob Eissler, Texas schools will continue to suffer from the $5.4 Billion budget cut from our Texas legislators this year.