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Dateline:
Southlake, Texas Saturday November 24, 2001 6:02 PM
Representative Vicki
Truitt Invites "Robin Hood" Legislative Review Committee to
Northeast Tarrant County Response: "We’re Coming to Town"
Southlake – At the request
of State Representative Vicki Truitt
(R-Grapevine), members of the Joint Select Committee on Public School
Finance
have agreed to hold a public hearing on December 13, 2001 in Westlake.
Nine
members of the committee will travel to the area to receive public comment
and input on the current school finance system and to discuss ways to
improve
the system. The Westlake hearing is the only public hearing
scheduled by the
Committee for the entire north Texas region.
"This is a real coup for Northeast Tarrant County. Only
six public hearings
are scheduled around the state, and one will be right here in our
neighborhood. Now is our chance to tell the school finance
architects why
and how the current method for school finance should be changed,"
said
Representative Truitt.
Truitt has been a leading voice in calling for a review and revision of
the
current school finance system, which some refer to as "Robin Hood.
"Under the current system, several of the school districts in
Northeast
Tarrant County are Chapter 41 districts, which means they have to send
money
to poorer school districts," Truitt said. She continued,
"It has reached the
point where our school districts are sending millions of dollars every
year
to these other districts; yet simultaneously, our districts are having to
assess where they can cut service budgets to accommodate the outflow of
cash.
I am disturbed by this, and will not stand idle while our school
districts,
the taxpayers, and most importantly, our students, are being be harmed by
the
current school finance method."
Grapevine/Colleyville ISD Board President, Mark Born, agrees with
Truitt’s
conclusion. "Having this public hearing in Westlake is an
outstanding
opportunity for parents, teachers, taxpayers and school administrators to
directly speak to the state policy makers about the Robin Hood method of
school finance. It is imperative that we take advantage of this
opportunity
to tell these legislators how current school finance plan is negatively
affecting educational programs, teacher recruitment and teacher retention
in
property-wealthy school districts." Currently, the
Grapevine/Colleyville
Independent School District must send $28 million per year to the state
before local district educational needs may be addressed.
This public hearing is for all concerned with public school funding in the
North Texas area. The public is encouraged to attend and share their
thoughts with members of the Select Committee on Public School Finance at
its
hearing on Thursday, December 13th. The public hearing will be held
in the
auditorium of the new Fidelity corporate campus, in Westlake. Time
of the
hearing will be announced in the coming days, but it is expected begin
during
the morning and last throughout the entire day, depending upon how many
people attend and want to testify. Citizens needing more information
about
the meeting may call Representative Truitt’s district office at (817)
488-4098.
Public School Finance Joint Select Committee members to participate in the
Westlake meeting include State Senators Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), Royce
West (D-Dallas) and Leticia Vann de Putte (D-San Antonio); State
Representatives Paul Sadler, (D-Henderson), Chairman; Rene Oliveira
(D-Brownsville) and Todd Smith (R-Bedford); as well as public members,
Lyndon
Olson, Mark Stiles and David Thompson.
School districts in Representative Truitt’s legislative district (98)
include
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, Carroll ISD, Keller ISD, and parts of Northwest
ISD, Birdville ISD, HEB ISD, Fort Worth ISD, and Eagle Mountain-Saginaw
ISD.
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