The Economist - UK (2019-06-01)

36 United States The EconomistJune 1st 2019

“T

here’s no compromisein Washing-

ton right now. But the good thing is,

there’s compromise in Texas,” says Michael

Hinojosa, superintendent of the Dallas In-

dependent School District. On May 27th

Texan legislators, who meet for 140 days ev-

ery other year, concluded their session,

having passed several bills with bipartisan

support, including ones related to public

education and property tax. It was the most

productive legislative session in a decade.

Much of the credit for that should go to

voters in the 2018 election, who introduced

political competition into the legislature,

with Democrats winning two state Senate

seats and 12 seats in the House. (Republi-

cans now control 55% of seats in the state

House and 61% in the Senate.) This prodded

Republicans to work on issues of conse-

quence to voters and to broker consensus.

Far-right proposals on social issues that

had sparked battles during the 2017 legisla-

tive session, including regulations on

which toilets transgender people could

use, were less frequent this spring. “The

major story is what this session wasn’t

about, which is the conservative issues

that have been bandied about for the last

decade. There was a real effort to get sub-

stantive things done,” says Jason Sabo of

Frontera Strategies, a lobbying firm.

The chief accomplishment in this legis-

lative session was a school finance bill,

which puts $6.5bn in new state funding to-

wards public schools and $5.1bn towards

reducing Texans’ property taxes. The addi-

tional school funding will have the biggest

impact. Around 10% of American children

are educated in Texas, but the parsimoni-

ous state has lagged behind for years in

funding and exam results. The Republican-

led legislature cut over $5bn in education

funding in 2012-13. School districts have

sued the state several times for underfund-

ing education, and they have won.

In 2017 Texas ranked 46th in the country

in fourth-grade reading proficiency, down

five places since 2015, according to the Na-

tional Assessment of Educational Progress,

which measures pupil achievement. A re-

port by the Texas Commission on Public

School Finance, released in December,

concluded that the state was failing

roughly four out of five Texas pupils every

year, who were leaving school without the

qualifications to earn a living wage. This, it

said, was both a poor return on the

$125,000 invested in each pupil’s educa-

tion from pre-kindergarten and a missed

opportunity “to capture the tremendous

unrealised potential of our Texas youth”.

The new bill will increase most school

districts’ funding by around 5-6%, but the

“systemic reforms” will matter even more,

says Todd Williams, who runs the Commit

Partnership, an educational non-profit,

and served on the commission. These in-

clude money for full-day pre-kindergarten

for poor pupils and those learning English;

funds for elementary schools that elect to

extend the academic year by 30 days into

the summer; and a merit-pay programme

that rewards top-performing teachers and

those willing to work in difficult schools.

Houston, we have a solution

The bill pays school districts more for each

high-school graduate who goes on to earn a

higher degree or certificate, or joins the

armed forces within six months. It also re-

quires school districts to set five-year goals

for third-grade (eight-to-nine-year-olds’)

reading and maths, broken down by race

and income, and to publish results annual-

ly. “What gets measured gets fixed, and this

bill will require all 1,100 school districts to

hold themselves accountable to specific

goals,” says Mr Williams.

In an effort to appease voters concerned

not just about school quality but also their

tax bills, the legislature also agreed to re-

duce property taxes. School districts will

no longer be able to raise them above a cer-

tain threshold each year without holding

a special election. Boosting education

spending while thinning revenue streams

is a delicate balancing act, but because the

state has promised to step in and cover the

cost of the tax cuts for homeowners, this

should not deal a big blow to schools.

Where will the money to increase fund-

ing, while cutting taxes, come from? The

Texan economy is booming, and so legisla-

tors were able to reshuffle money to fund

education and tax cuts for the next two

years without identifying a permanent

new revenue source. “They have to count

on this robust economy continuing,” says

Mr Hinojosa of the Dallas school district,

who says that “in the short term we’re bet-

ter off. But I’m more worried about four or

five years from now”.

Texas does not have an income tax, so

the state and local governments rely dis-

proportionately on sales and property tax-

es. In order to ensure sustainable funding

for education, the state should do all it can

to prevent small amounts of money from

slipping away, says Dick Lavine of the Cen-

tre for Public Policy Priorities, a left-lean-

ing think-tank in Austin. But a couple of

other tax cuts made it through this legisla-

tive session, including a bill that caps the

sales tax that can be collected on purchases

of boats and yachts up to 115 feet long,

which will cost the state $6.4m in forgone

revenue from 2020 to 2024.

Governor Greg Abbott, lieutenant-go-

vernor Dan Patrick and the House Speaker,

Dennis Bonnen, known as the state’s “big

three”, have enjoyed mostly smooth sail-

ing. They faced only two setbacks this ses-

sion. First, although the three of them sup-

ported a proposal to increase the sales-tax

rate to fund property-tax cuts, the legisla-

ture killed the idea, because it would dis-

proportionately hurt the poor. Second, Mr

Abbott’s nominee for secretary of state, Da-

vid Whitley, was ensnared in a scandal.

Earlier this year Mr Whitley compiled a list

of 100,000 people the state suspected were

not citizens and encouraged local election

officials to purge them from the rolls, even

though some were recently naturalised.

The incident prompted a federal inquiry

and court battle, and Texas agreed to settle.

Mr Whitley resigned after the legislature

did not vote to confirm him.

Is this focus on bread-and-butter issues

in the Texas legislature the new normal?

That will not be clear until 2021, when the

legislature next convenes. In the interim

there will be another election that could

further alter the state’s political alignment,

as more young, urban and Hispanic voters

go to the polls in 2020. If this session is any

guide this may make Texas politics com-

paratively boring—in a good way. 7

DALLAS

Texan politicians put money behind moderate, sensible policies

The Texas legislature wraps up

Hide your crazy

Sam’s club