Political Updates
Chapter Ten: Revenues, Expenditures, and Fiscal Policy

Public School Pressures, pg. 419

Although Texans continue to deal with the need to increase and equalize spending for public school students, by 2001 the most significant issue in public education was providing adequate compensation and health benefits for teachers and other school employees. Predicted teacher shortages fueled demands for better teacher benefits to attract and retain new teachers for the public schools. Relying on local property owners to finance school growth, equalization, and employee salaries and benefits is questionable. State support for public education as a percentage of total cost declined from more than 50 percent in the 1980s to 40 percent in 2000.