HISD Trustee Harvin Moore Wants the State to Man Up
Houston ISD trustee Harvin Moore has come out guns blazing against the probable hefty cut in state funding for education to local public school districts, saying that legislators aren't honoring their constitutional duty to support education in Texas.
Harvin Moore: Not happy, despite the smile
In the first of what promises to be a series of op-ed pieces published by the Examiner newspaper group in River Oaks, Bellaire and West University, Moore states: "From the end of World War II until the early 1990s, the State and local communities each contributed about 50% of the overall cost of supporting our public schools."
This began declining in the 1990s, he says, to the point that the state contribution is about "32% of the total cost of educating a student in HISD."
But if the state makes anticipated cuts, it will bring its local contribution down to the 25 percent mark for HISD students, Moore says. Forcing local taxpayers to pick up an even greater burden to support education is unfair, will probably be inadequate and to his way of thinking is unconstitutional since in effect it is a state property tax, which, he says, is not allowed by the constitution.
Moore says local property owners are willing to do their part. He wants the state to do the same.
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